Boulos explores Nunes’ link with Bolsonaro; mayor reacts – 02/15/2024 – Power

Federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) raised his tone against Ricardo Nunes (MDB) with the advancement of investigations into the coup by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and, during an interview with Sheet, said that the mayor is omitted and leaves doubts about his commitment to democratic values. When contacted, Nunes called his rival an invader and said he was from the democracy party.

Supported by President Lula (PT), Boulos exploits Nunes’ connection with Bolsonaro as a strategy to wear him down. The former president, who supports the pre-candidate for re-election, called on supporters to demonstrate in his defense on the 25th, on Avenida Paulista. The emedebista is pressured to go.

Nunes avoided commenting on the Federal Police operation on the 8th that targeted Bolsonaro, his assistants and the military for alleged participation in a plot to annul the election results and carry out a coup d’état.

The mayor initially refused to address the issue and then adopted a speech respecting the presumption of innocence provided for in the Constitution and trust in the Judiciary, without expressing an opinion.

“Sometimes silence says a lot. Ricardo Nunes was silent about January 8th and the revelation of the coup in PF operations. He wants to embrace Bolsonaro at any cost and is subjecting São Paulo to this”, Boulos told the reporter , in line with what he has posted on social networks.

“All the facts that we have seen reinforce the importance of having a democratic front to defeat Bolsonarism in São Paulo and in municipal elections throughout Brazil”, added the psolist, who should have former mayor Marta Suplicy as vice-president ( PT). She was secretary of the Nunes administration until December and used the alliance with Bolsonaro as justification to break with the mayor and return to the old party.

Boulos and allies work to nationalize the debate and repeat the polarization between Lula and Bolsonaro.

The deputy stated that he also wants to discuss local problems in the campaign, but that “the city needs to know whether the candidate for whom it is going to vote defends those who undermine democracy or not, it needs to know whether this candidate is committed to democratic values ​​or not” .

For him, “it’s a national issue, but it’s [também] a theme of society as a whole”.

In response to his opponent’s statements, Nunes did not mention the investigations against Bolsonaro and provoked Boulos by suggesting that he knows the city poorly and associating him with invasions of private properties, due to his career as leader of the MTST (Homeless Workers Movement) .

“I’m the mayor of the largest city in Latin America, I know every corner of this city-country like few do. I’m from the MDB, the true party of Brazilian democracy. If the invader wants to discuss democracy, I can ask the [ex-]president Michel Temer to give him some lessons”, he told Sheet.

The mayor also recalled that his party has representatives in Lula’s ministry, in an attempt to deconstruct Boulos’ speech that the MDB candidacy flirts with authoritarianism. Behind the scenes of the pre-campaign, the order is to treat the left’s offensive as a false narrative.

“I, Michel, Whale [Rossi, presidente nacional da legenda], some federal government ministers and more than 2 million members are part of the party that fights for unity, not division. Therefore, we are building a broad front to defeat this extremist, and I am sure that the people of São Paulo do not want trouble. This city will continue with a safe project,” said Nunes.

While the pre-candidate for re-election acts to paint his opponent as a left-wing and inexperienced radical, the psolist tries to stick the Bolsonarista tag on his opponent and evokes the idea of ​​a “democratic front” in the capital to prevent the victory of a confirmed name by the former president.

The PF investigations, which brought to light a video of a 2022 ministerial meeting in which Bolsonaro and other authorities discussed coup scenarios, gave fuel to Boulos’ rhetoric.

The deputy explored the subject intensely in his speeches and publications in recent days, always linking the former president to Nunes. He said that São Paulo “cannot be held hostage by Bolsonarism” and “does not deserve” a ruler like the current one, whom he called a “ghost mayor” and “missing figure”.

The psolist recalled that Nunes already said he considered the former president “a democrat”, a statement he made in an interview with Sheet In September. Boulos says he is against amnesty for those accused of coup plotting and, during Carnival, he made a joke in which he talked about his desire to see Bolsonaro arrested.

The campaign is betting on the link based on the vote that Bolsonaro had in the city in 2022, lower than that of Lula, and on polls that show high rejection of the former president. A Datafolha survey from August last year showed that 68% of the capital’s residents would not vote for someone nominated by him.

Nunes tries to escape the nationalization of the election, treating Bolsonaro as one of many supporters. The former president, however, demands the choice of vice-president on the ticket, while his supporters force the emedebista to make room for the group, with no room for shameful support.

As shown by Sheet, Bolsonaro began to make direct criticisms of Boulos, in some cases extending attacks to Lula — which clashes with the strategy defined by those around Nunes and contributes to the polarization sought by PSOL and PT. The former president has already referred to the psolist as an invader and “eternally unoccupied”.

The backdrop of the clashes is the 2026 election. Both Lula and Bolsonaro see the election in São Paulo as a demonstration of strength in their respective fields and assess that the result has the potential to dictate the direction of the next presidential contest.

Lula also articulated the PT’s support for Boulos in 2022, leading the party to be left without its own candidate in the city for the first time. by Nunes—and got involved in the campaign.

Bolsonaro gave up on launching a name 100% aligned with his ideological agenda and was convinced to support Nunes with the argument that a more radical politician would not have a chance. The current mayor is mainly interested in avoiding a division of the electorate that threatens his going to the second round.