Chapa Marta-Boulos reinforces Lula-Bolsonaro polarization – 01/10/2024 – Power

The confirmation of the Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) ticket with Marta Suplicy, who is about to return to the PT after leaving the government of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), will accentuate the polarization in the election for the Mayor of São Paulo between President Lula (PT ) and former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Lula’s entry into the political articulation to remove Marta from the Municipal Secretariat of International Relations and reincorporate her into the PT, after the traumatic disaffiliation in 2015, and Nunes’ movements to support Bolsonaro, now considered correct by the mayor, highlighted the division.

The narrowing of the scenario between the two candidates with the best score in the intention polls — federal deputy Boulos in the lead — reinforces the assessment that candidacies that are separate from both names, such as that of also deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB), will have a complicated path .

The rerun of the polarization of the presidential election is encouraged by both sides, who see this year’s municipal election as a showcase of a demonstration of strength that will be decisive for the 2026 dispute, when Lula and Bolsonarism must star in a kind of stubborn confrontation. 2022.

The president said at a PT meeting at the end of the year that he thinks “it will be, once again, Lula and Bolsonaro contesting these elections in the municipalities”. Despite being ineligible, Bolsonaro wants to work for the election of allies in city halls and envisions a role as leader of the right in 2026.

Boulos’ association with Lula, evident since the origin of the psolist’s pre-candidacy, has differences with the connection between Nunes and Bolsonaro. The emedebista wants the former president on the stage, but tries to treat him as one among many supporters and cautiously adhere to the Bolsonarist discourse.

On the part of PSOL and PT, the discourse of polarization is wide open, with the rhetoric that it is crucial for the city of São Paulo to give an unequivocal demonstration of the defeat of Bolsonarism, now represented by Nunes, but which may be divided into more than one candidacy.

As there are doubts about Bolsonaro’s permanence with the mayor until the campaign, after a series of ambiguous statements and nods to other alternatives, the launch of a “root Bolsonaro” candidacy endorsed by the former president, such as that of Ricardo Salles (PL ), is not discarded.

According to Boulos’ allies, however, the group of competitors will not change the strategy of presenting him as the politician capable of uniting the democratic camp against what they consider representatives of far-right authoritarianism who flirted with a coup d’état.

Bolsonaro’s supporters, in the same way, paint the opposing camp as the evil to be fought by the conservative segment, warning of the political victory that the left will have if it wins the mayorship of the largest city in the country. The order is to avoid Boulos’ election at any cost.

Marta’s return to the PT, arranged by Lula himself, rescues a historic figure from the party, who administered the city from 2001 to 2004 with a legacy recognized even by rivals. Despite breaking with the party and voting for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the former mayor remained in the public eye with the image of a PT member. After a stint at the MDB, she is without a party.

If confirmed as vice-president, the former mayor should highlight in the campaign the achievements of her administration, highlighting achievements such as the CEUs, the Bilhete Único and the bus lanes. Her affiliation is expected to be announced in the coming days. On Tuesday (9), she left the Nunes administration.

Marta’s justification for the disembarkation was precisely the emedebista’s rapprochement with Bolsonaro, something that Boulos classified in recent days as a vexatious role. The speech is that it would be inconsistent with the former PT member’s trajectory to be on the same side as the former president.

Nunes relativizes the matter, remembering that her gestures seeking his support had been public since last year. The mayor even received Bolsonaro at a lunch at city hall in August.

The calculated distance that Nunes maintains in relation to the former president is explained by the rate of rejection of Bolsonaro in the capital. A Datafolha survey in August showed that 68% of São Paulo residents said they would never vote for a candidate supported by the former president.

The left is relying on the picture of the 2022 election to bet on Boulos’ victory. At the time, Bolsonaro and his candidate for governor, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), had fewer votes in the capital than Lula and Fernando Haddad (PT), which would indicate a favorable trend this year.

Boulos has been keen to demarcate the polarizing nature of the dispute and refers to his opponent’s candidacy as “BolsoNunes”. The psolist also opposes Tarcísio, remembering that Bolsonaro’s former minister remains allied with him and should accompany the former president in supporting the mayor.

“The fight we are going to have will logically be about urban design, quality of life and social policies, but it will also be a fight to defeat Bolsonarism once again in our country”, said the PSOL pre-candidate in an event on Tuesday to receive the PDT support for your candidacy.

Lula debuted in the ally’s pre-campaign at a government event in December, in the east zone, with the presence of Boulos. The president informed that he will participate in other activities to promote it and recommended that assistants intensify actions to value federal initiatives in the city.

With the spotlight focused on the performances of the godfathers, pre-candidates who try to avoid the Lula-Bolsonaro dichotomy seek to win over voters who are refractory to both.

Tabata has been stating that he intends to dialogue with the portion of the population that rejects polarization and wants to discuss local problems. The deputy, supported by vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), sees space to propose solutions without attachment to ideological dogmas, as is typical of her parliamentary work.

Federal deputy Kim Kataguiri, who is trying to make a candidacy for União Brasil —an acronym currently in Nunes’ orbit— viable, also seeks to break the duality. Anti-PT and anti-Bolsonaro supporter, the leader of the MBL (Movimento Brasil Livre) targets a right-wing voter who is less radicalized and liberal in the economy.

In the assessment of political scientist Alberto Carlos Almeida, the influence of Lula and Bolsonaro in the São Paulo election is still uncertain, as city issues may overlap with the national political fight. “If the scenario continues, it will not be a classic dispute between Lula’s candidate and Bolsonaro’s,” he says.

_{Collaborated Carolina Linharesfrom Sao Paulo}