Boulos rebuts Nunes and blames the invader: ‘No one else falls’ – 02/09/2023 – Politics

Ahead of the race for Mayor of São Paulo, federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) says that one of his tasks in the campaign is to fight the label of invader because of his work in the housing movement and sees Ricardo Nunes (MDB) losing the re-election for poor management.

“Nunes is the new [Celso] Pitta, which represented abandonment, complete management chaos and corruption schemes everywhere,” he says in an interview with Sheetciting the former mayor (1997-2000).

Boulos appears in Datafolha with 32%, while Nunes reaches 24%. “With a lot of dialogue and listening skills, we will be able to advance to other sectors [do eleitorado]”, says the psolist, who is supported by President Lula, in an arrangement in which the PT will be without its own candidate in the capital for the first time.

This is the first of a series of interviews with pre-candidates for the Mayor of São Paulo that will be published by Sheet over the coming weeks. Boulos, leader in voting intentions at Datafolha, opens the sequence, which will continue with other names highlighted in the survey.

Was Nunes’ performance at Datafolha surprising?
No, what is surprising is that someone who abuses the machine and spends BRL 380 million on advertising while the city has a record homeless population is not the favorite. His management is so tragic that, even with the unequal conditions of dispute, we are ahead.

Federal deputy Jilmar Tatto (PT-SP) was the main voice against support for his name and continues to criticize the alliance, speaking of the risk of failure. Does that worry you?
The relationship with the PT is consolidated. Support for our candidacy was unanimously approved at the congress of zonal directories. I have no doubt that we are going to have a group of left-wing and center-left parties united to give São Paulo back to the people.

What parties did Mr. are you looking for, in addition to those who make up the two federations (PSOL, Rede, PT, PV and PC do B)?
I have been talking with parties like Avante, PDT and Solidariedade so that we can create a broad progressive front to recover São Paulo, because that is what is at stake. The situation today is one of chaos and complete insecurity, and the city center is the best portrait of that.

Nunes brought together parties such as the MDB, PSD and União Brasil, which approached Lula. How are you going to deal with this narrow margin for alliances that makes it difficult to replicate the president’s broad front in São Paulo?
What I intend to do is a front similar to that of Lula in the first round. That’s what’s possible in the city. If a party is in Nunes’s government, it is very difficult for it to come to compose with us.

I want to dialogue with the sectors of the center, with the middle class of the expanded center that voted for Lula against Bolsonaro. When Nunes embraces Bolsonaro, he can bring whatever parties he wants, but he shows his true face, who tries to paint himself as a person from the center, but he is not.

It is difficult to see the magnification of which Mr. speaks, since he cited three parties, one of which, the PDT, has its own pre-candidate, José Luiz Datena.
Expanding alliances is not just a sum of parties. It means discussing with sectors that are not necessarily represented on a partisan basis. I want to build an alliance with society.

The mayor may have a machine to eventually buy party support, but in society you don’t cover the sun with a sieve. The rejection of his management is a fait accompli.

Nunes is a silent person, without command, without a city plan. All he has to show for it is a resurfacing program, which should be mandatory, not hyped. And worse: he does it poorly and suspiciously.

What is your limit for making compositions?
You know something I find funny? If I don’t talk to anyone, [dizem]: “Boulos is radical, he is extremist”. If I open a conversation, people will come saying: “Boulos is giving up his flags”. For God’s sake, right?

Politics cannot be built in a democratic environment without dialogue between the different. My positions everyone knows. And I want to dialogue with society. First, is to remove [a pecha de] boogeyman, radical, extremist, “will invade your house”. This is breaking down. Second, it is to show that my project, which is to fight inequalities, interests everyone.

What have you noticed in conversations with sectors that would not support you? naturally?
There is a fear, due to my trajectory, that I act only on the periphery and leave the expanded center abandoned. What I answer to them is that more abandoned than it is, it becomes difficult, right? My commitment is to the whole of the city. It is logical that, in such an unequal city, the priority must be given to the poorest regions.

How do you intend to combat the invader, exploited by Nunes?
I am proud of my biography, of my work in the social movement [MTST] for 20 years. I don’t think anyone else falls for that “Boulos invades other people’s houses”. Frankly, nobody in their right mind believes that, right? What I stand for is that people can have decent housing.

Isn’t it a hornet’s nest to touch on this subject at this moment, with the MST’s CPI in evidence?
The MST’s CPI is ending up absolutely demoralized. As yet another vain attempt to criminalize a social movement.

What society is this that coexists with abandoned properties, which owe more taxes than their values, and children and elderly people sleeping on the sidewalk of that same building? I don’t think that’s natural, and I’m in politics to change that. Today, a large part of society understands the need to [políticas de] home.

The mayor only made the situation worse. I am able to resolve this situation, due to history, positioning, commitment. I doubt very much that the mayor can say that he is proud of his own trajectory. Where he came from? He is someone who only omits himself, only hides, acts in secret. What is his past trajectory? How did he get the goods he has?

Nunes has a series of actions with an electoral impact planned until the campaign. How will you face it?
There are politicians who think that the population is a beast. This story of leaving the city abandoned for three years and, in the year of the election, putting in work to generate a visual, that doesn’t stick.

People have memory. This is disrespectful. It is a form of political-electoral opportunism that people from São Paulo cannot swallow.

What space does Mr. do you see for the private sector, after being criticized in 2020 for talking about new competitions to expand civil service?
I support public service. Having a valued server is essential for a quality service at the end. At the same time, I am not against partnerships with the private sector that are good for the city and citizens. There is no demonization, there is a discussion of what the role of the State is, and it is central in the fight against inequalities and in the management of public policies.

Mr. defended, in 2020, the revocation of the concession contract for the Pacaembu stadium. Today, the privatization of Sabesp is under discussion. Mr. preach contractual review, if the process is completed?
I am against the privatization of Sabesp because it could increase the population’s water bill. Sabesp is a functioning public company, which makes a profit, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is profitable, managed to expand sanitation at a level reasonably above the national average. There is no reason to go through the privatization process.

Now, reviewing a signed contract is not a matter of will [do prefeito]there must be irregularity or non-compliance.

If I get there and revoke a contract, and there are several of them I don’t agree with, the Court of Justice revokes my pen.

What will you do this time to win, something that didn’t happen in 2020?
The situation is totally different. Bolsonaro was president. Today Lula is the president and he supports me. In 2020, I had 17 seconds of television. This time, I will have three minutes, with a coalition of 7 or 8 parties.

During this period, I have sought to prepare myself and learn more about the subject of urban management. I’ve been to Santiago and Paris, learning about mobility experiences, and I’m going to Harvard to meet the mayors of Boston and Chicago. Global cities are discussing sustainability. And São Paulo? Stopped in time, it’s aimless. I have been meeting with specialists from several areas, and not just from the left, such as the former state secretary of Health Jean Gorinchteyn [que foi auxiliar do então tucano João Doria].

In addition, today I am a deputy. In six months, I approved two laws of my own initiative, and I built it with dialogue, obtaining votes from União Brasil, PSD, MDB, PSDB.

In 2020, the presence of Luiza Erundina as his deputy was the response to criticism of his inexperience. Mr. is now presenting a vaccine?
It’s not a vaccine issue, it’s facts. It means arriving with a series of experiences, acting as a deputy. Now, if Nunes in the campaign comes to talk to me about experience, what does he have to show is the tragedy he transformed São Paulo into in three years? This experience I want away from me.

What profile do you have? waiting for deputy, vacancy whose nomination will be from the PT, as foreseen in the agreement?
I will not discuss vice now, but at the beginning of next year. This semester, I’m going to visit the 32 subprefectures to listen to the city’s problems, dialogue with all sectors and hold international meetings.

Will you run a more national or local campaign?
I am proud to be Lula’s candidate, unlike my opponent, who hides that he is supported by Bolsonaro. And Lula will be in the campaign. My goal is to debate the city. Who is running away from this and waging ideological war is my opponent, for not having anything to show.

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X-RAY | GUILHERME BOULOS, 41

He holds a degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in psychiatry from USP. Coordinator of the MTST (Movement of Homeless Workers), he was a candidate for president in 2018 by the PSOL. He reached the second round of the São Paulo City Hall election in 2020 and was defeated by re-election candidate Bruno Covas (PSDB). He was the most voted federal deputy in the state of São Paulo in 2022, with 1 million votes