Curitiba: Bolsonarism and car wash disappear from campaigns – 10/01/2024 – Power

Names strongly associated with Bolsonarism and Lava Jatism are not highlighted in the campaigns for the City Hall of Curitiba, the capital that gained fame at the height of Operation Lava Jato and where former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) received almost 65% of the votes in the dispute with President Lula (PT) in 2022.

With almost a month of campaigning on TV, Paulo Martins, member of the PL and candidate for vice in the alliance with Eduardo Pimentel (PSD), and federal deputy Rosângela Moro (União Brasil), candidate for vice on the ticket headed by Ney Leprevost (União Brazil), made shy appearances alongside their respective mayors, especially Martins, who was barely seen on screen.

Current vice-mayor, but with little experience at the polls, Pimentel preferred to stick to the two main leaders of his party, mayor Rafael Greca and governor Ratinho Junior, frequent figures in his electoral propaganda. “I prepared Eduardo for this moment”, says the mayor on TV.

Ratinho is called by the candidate a “first-class partner”.

Former federal deputy Paulo Martins, with his anti-PT flag, was Bolsonaro’s candidate in the Senate race in 2022, coming in second place in the race, won by Sergio Moro (União Brasil). Due to his performance in the election, he was named PL’s natural pre-candidate for mayor, but that didn’t last.

Ratinho Junior, a friend of Paulo Martins and an ally of the former president, managed to bring the PL to Pimentel’s ticket, despite Greca’s resistance to Bolsonarism. Bolsonaro himself, however, is not a remembered ally in the current vice-mayor’s campaign and his agenda has so far been far from Curitiba.

The Novo party, led by Deltan Dallagnol, former Lava Jato prosecutor, is also part of Pimentel’s coalition, and a brief statement from him in support of the candidate has already been aired. But the speech about fighting corruption and against the PT, which helped him to be elected federal deputy in 2022 (revoked the following year), has no place in the municipal election.

In the capital of Paraná, the themes of the campaigns focused on the city’s daily life. Among the problems explored by Pimentel’s opponents are, for example, the high cost of bus tickets, the lack of daycare spaces and the growth in the number of homeless people.

In the pre-campaign, in July, Rosângela Moro, Sergio Moro’s wife, still tried to engage anti-PTism, by stating that one of the reasons for accepting the invitation to join the União Brasil ticket was to “prevent the advance of the PT in our municipalities “. He also said that, for the first time, Curitiba had a ticket “in which there is a legitimate representative of the Republic of Curitiba, which we are very proud of”.

The senator, a former Lava Jato judge, also said at the time that he had been invited to contribute to Leprevost’s government plan for the area of ​​public security and mentioned the idea of ​​creating a municipal anti-corruption agency.

In União Brasil’s assessment, the Moro couple’s entry into the campaign would add weight to the dispute with Pimentel, who has the municipal and state machinery in his hands. But the most recent Quaest poll, published two weeks ago, showed Pimentel ahead, with 36% of voting intentions. With 12%, Leprevost appears in second place, technically tied with Luciano Ducci (PSB), who has 15%.

The election in Curitiba is considered a test for Moro, who intends to run as a candidate for state government in 2026, when he would compete with names from Ratinho Junior’s group, such as state deputy Alexandre Curi (PSD) and Greca himself.

But the Moro couple’s anti-PT flag lost strength in the campaign in Curitiba, where President Lula’s party preferred not to have its own candidacy and is only part of the coalition of PSB and PDT candidates.

From the 1980s onwards, the PT has always been the head of the ticket, with the exception of the 2012 dispute, when it nominated PT member Mirian Gonçalves to be Gustavo Fruet’s (PDT) vice-president, the winning alliance in that year’s polls. In all other elections, the PT presented candidates for the main Executive seat, but none of the names were elected.

Just like Bolsonaro in Pimentel’s campaign, Lula is also not an ally remembered in Luciano Ducci’s videos, although “federal government programs” are mentioned and the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, has already given her testimony of support.

But, unlike Pimentel and Paulo Martins, Ducci campaigns closely behind his candidate for vice mayor, Goura (PDT), who appears on TV practically as much as the head of the ticket.

The strategy is to win the vote of left-wing voters who are close to Goura and resist Ducci, who was once an ally of the Tucanos at a time when the PSDB was the main antagonist of the PT.

Ducci also voted in 2016 in favor of the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT), following guidance from the PSB itself, now the acronym of Geraldo Alckmin, Lula’s deputy.