João Campos targets lulist electorate in Recife – 05/27/2023 – Power

João Campos targets lulist electorate in Recife – 05/27/2023 – Power


With an eye on re-election in 2024, the mayor of Recife, João Campos (PSB), has been turning to the left in his way of governing and acting politically in the capital of Pernambuco.

Allied with President Lula (PT), João Campos seeks greater penetration in the city’s PT electorate to leave behind the turmoil generated in 2020 in the fierce dispute against the PT in Recife.

During the election campaign, still as a candidate, João Campos criticized the PT several times and cited corruption scandals involving the party. He beat his second cousin, former federal deputy Marília Arraes, who ran for PT and is currently in Solidariedade.

On the occasion, João Campos promised that he would not give positions to PT members in the city hall during his term.

In March 2022, however, the mayor appointed two members appointed by the PT to municipal management secretariats. The claim, since then, is that the movement replicates the national alliance formalized in 2022 with the ticket of Lula and Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) for the presidential race.

The agreement with the PT was the key point for João Campos to advance in articulations with other parties, such as União Brasil and PSD.

In return, the PT hopes to occupy the vice-presidential seat of João Campos in 2024. The current vice-mayor, Isabella de Roldão (PDT), has little chance of running for re-election with João.

The goal of the PT is to value the party by occupying João’s vice. The trend is that, for the first time since redemocratization, the PT, which governed the city between 2001 and 2012, does not launch its own candidacy.

On the other hand, PT lives under uncertainty whether João Campos wants a PT as his deputy. This is because there is a possibility that the mayor will be a candidate for governor in 2026, which would lead the vice to take charge of Recife.

The relationship between PT and PSB has been nourished by moments of unity and tension since 2012. There have been two splits since then and a campaign full of attacks, the 2020 campaign. peaceful coexistence and division of spaces of power.

In the programmatic part, João Campos has also sought adaptations in the way he works to appeal to the most left-wing electorate in the city.

Elected after defeating the PT, João Campos adopted a speech farther from the left in the first year of municipal government. Among the actions that displeased the segment is the pension reform for civil servants, carried out in 2021 after approval by the Chamber.

Another speech in which the mayor invested and is a taboo for part of the left is the concessions to the private sector. The management of João Campos made public, still in 2021, the intention to hand over the management of six parks in the city to the private sector.

Petistas heard under reservation by the Sheet they say that the party hopes that the mayor of Recife does not advance in this type of agenda, so as not to generate any disruptions in the relationship between the two parties.

The PT currently has three councillors, who work this year in the allied base of João Campos. One of the PT parliamentarians, councilor Liana Cirne, is even quoted to be nominated by the PT as deputy mayor in the 2024 dispute.

To wave to the Lula electorate, João Campos has been making gestures to the public since the election campaign, when he went up on platforms alongside the then candidate Lula in Recife and also in the countryside.

In the administration, the mayor had audiences with social movements and unions linked to the PT after the party occupied two secretariats in the municipal machine.

Political retribution is also done by the federal government. This year, João Campos was invited by the Lula government to a meeting of a restricted group of mayors at the Planalto Palace and was one of those who had a free microphone to speak.

In April, Lula signed a term to authorize the BID (Inter-American Development Bank) credit operation for Recife. The federal government is the guarantor of the loan, which was approved by the Senate.

The volume of resources is seen behind the scenes of the city hall as a determining factor in raising the mayor’s popularity. The amount will be destined predominantly to risk areas in hills.

The rains that left 128 dead in Greater Recife in May 2022 wore down local public managers, including João Campos. The mayor’s goal is to use the billionaire loan as a turning point.

The meeting to seal the loan at the Planalto Palace was heralded by João Campos on social media.

In the PT, the prevailing perception is that João Campos nods to Lula and the PT for electoral and political reasons. The caption assesses that the mayor wants to be re-elected in the first round in 2024 and is targeting the election of the Government of Pernambuco in 2026, which already has Governor Raquel Lyra (PSDB) as its natural candidate for re-election, its opponent.

In the PSB, the reading is that the rapprochement is natural in the face of the Lula-Alckmin ticket. To interlocutors, João Campos says that, despite previous quarrels with the PT, the two parties have more convergences than divergences and emphasizes that he never made harsh criticisms of Lula, with whom his father, former governor Eduardo Campos (1965-2014) had a good relationship.

“In the dynamics of politics, João made local movements according to the national scenario. In the 2020 to 2022 election, there were many changes in the local and national scenario and, naturally, in Recife, there were consequences of that”, says the government leader , councilor Samuel Salazar (MDB).

The mayor also nominated the superintendent of Codevasf (Company for the Development of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys) in Pernambuco in a joint nomination with federal deputy Silvio Costa Filho (Republicans) in the Lula government. In the agreement, the PT appointed the head of the company in Petrolina, in the backlands of Pernambuco.



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