Bolsonaristas try to corner Tarcísio before Bolsonaro – 07/07/2023 – Politics

One day after the public disagreement between Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) over the tax reform, Bolsonarist deputies claim that the crisis has exposed the dissatisfaction of the right with the governor of São Paulo, which had previously been kept behind the scenes , and that the independence movement could cost him support in the state.

The former president himself has been acting as a firefighter in an attempt to overcome the split, but Bolsonarist militancy continues to harass Tarcísio in the networks, including with the participation of Bolsonaro’s children.

Parliamentarians allied with the former president say that the episode made it clear that Tarcísio does not play with the team and has his own political project.

In the definition of one of them, the governor wants to be a Bolsonarist without Bolsonaro, but he forgets that he will need the right-wing votes in the Legislative Assembly and in an eventual presidential project.

As shown to Sheet, Bolsonaro even interrupted Tarcísio, who was harassed by Bolsonaristas from the PL at a party meeting. While the former president preached a vote no to the reform, the governor defended it.

The text was approved by 382 in the first stage and 375 in the second, in a defeat for Bolsonaro and victory for Tarcísio.

Interlocutors of Bolsonaro and Tarcísio say that both see the episode as overcome and that it is necessary to look forward. Padrinho and godson spoke by telephone, in a friendly tone, this Friday (7) and should meet in Brasília.

Also on Thursday (6), the former president took action to lower the temperature of the discussion – he called Bolsonarist deputies who were criticizing Tarcísio and asked for moderation. He also stated, in an interview with Jovem Pan, that he and the governor agreed that the text still needed improvement before the vote.

“Tarcísio is ten in the technical part, in the political part he is quite inexperienced. He was upset because he was being beaten a lot, but it is part of the rules of the game”, he said.

In the opinion of allies of the former president, however, the divorce is ongoing. They claim that Bolsonaro did not like Tarcísio’s attitude, but he will avoid a break because he, who is experiencing a judicial siege and is fragile, loses political capital if he admits that he has no control over his ally.

For Bolsonaristas in São Paulo, the crisis was nothing new. The distance between Tarcísio and parliamentarians from Bolsonaro’s base is already consolidated in the state to the point of causing a series of obstacles for the governor in the Assembly.

Deputies demand positions, amendments, alignment and influence – they want the Tarcísio administration to be a local version of the Bolsonaro government. The governor resists giving in to ideology.

So far, criticism has remained behind the scenes to preserve the former president’s godson, but deputies claim that the discussion with Bolsonaro and the speech by Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) opened the gate for Tarcísio to be publicly fried by his base.

At the PL meeting, Salles said that Tarcísio does not govern like someone from the right. “If there is one place in Brazil today that does not have a right-wing government, it is the government of São Paulo. […] Enough, this joke is over,” he said.

The deputy received messages of praise from several Bolsonarists for his speech.

“Yesterday [quinta-feira] it was the day to express publicly. Tarcísio publicly did what he has been doing for seven months here in São Paulo, giving in to opponents and slamming the door on allies in the first place”, says state deputy Gil Diniz (PL), linked to Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP).

“Let’s see if Tarcísio will make the effort to approve projects in the Assembly as he did to prove the reform. [Fernando] haddad [PT] to defend the reforms he wants to carry out in the state, to convince the PT to vote in favour”, he jokes.

Tarcísio’s behavior is starting to be compared by the most radical Bolsonarists to that of João Doria (PSDB), who supported Bolsonaro in 2018, but became a rival of the then president in the pandemic. The betrayal took its toll in lack of popular support, which undermined his attempt to run for the Planalto.

Bolsonaristas say that Tarcísio could not withstand the artillery they maintained against Doria, who had left-wing opposition on one side and right-wing radicals on the other.

More than that, still in the evaluation of deputies. Tarcísio’s support for tax reform, an agenda that Bolsonaristas understand as the PT’s, despite the participation of Arthur Lira (PP-AL) and the centrão, could remove votes from the right if the governor bids for the Presidency in 2026, since Bolsonaro is ineligible. Parliamentarians say that it is not possible to face a national election alone.

Since the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, the Bolsonarist camp’s bets have focused on Tarcísio, seen as the former president’s political heir.

Bolsonaro, however, has avoided passing the baton – he said he was in the ICU, but not dead – and claims to have more experience than other right-wing alternatives, something he said about Tarcísio in front of the governor during the tense PL meeting on Thursday.

Tarcísio, in turn, also deviates from the presidential position and aims at re-election in São Paulo, in a strategy of political preservation. But, in his main performance on the national scene so far, in the articulation for reform, he positioned himself as Bolsonaro’s opponent and not as heir just a week after the declaration of ineligibility – which was read as a bad sign by Bolsonaristas.