MBL tries to launch Kim Kataguiri candidate for mayor of SP – 05/05/2023 – Politics

The MBL (Movimento Brasil Livre) wants to launch the federal deputy Kim Kataguiri, one of its main faces, to the São Paulo City Hall, in a movement that collides with the plans of his party, União Brasil, today a member of the base of the mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB ) —who seeks re-election.

Kataguiri confirmed to Sheet the existence of the articulation, but said that the movement should close the issue on the subject in the second half and that he has not yet spoken with the caption.

“I am a staunch supporter of the MBL having a candidate for mayoralty. If the only viable name is me, I can consider being a candidate, yes. And I have no intention of running for election to lose”, he stated. “Today, the trend is no longer [concorrer] than yes,” he added.

The movement, which was one of the instigators of the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT) and has members in several parties, seeks to maintain the political capital achieved in the city with the 2020 candidacy of Arthur do Val, who surprised and came in fifth, with 9.78% of valid votes.

Mamãe Falai, as he became known, lost his state deputy mandate after sexist speeches related to Ukrainian women victims of war were made public last year. He remains a member of the MBL, but was ineligible for eight years after being disbarred.

Kataguiri, founder and one of the most prominent names of the group, would have a showcase with the eventual candidacy in 2024 and would join a group of other federal deputies who already appear as pre-candidates: Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), Ricardo Salles (PL ) and Tabata Amaral (PSB).

“The dispute that is posed, for me, is to know who on the right will go to the second round against Boulos. Who has strength today is Boulos”, said the MBL member about the psolist, who reached the second round against Bruno Covas (PSDB) in 2020 and lost, with 40.6% of the valid votes, against 59.3% of the toucan.

“I don’t think we have to contest the election just to make a stand. We have to launch a competitive candidacy. Any name we put forward has to have a good base in research”, he said, who refuses to support any of the candidates who have already presented, including Nunes.

Despite the hesitation, Kataguiri has been encouraged by MBL colleagues, who consider a candidacy in the capital of São Paulo important to maintain and perhaps expand the result of 2020, consolidating the political importance of the movement and even catapulting new names to the Legislative.

The evaluation of members of the MBL is that their right field does not yet have a candidate in the municipal dispute, since Salles represents the extreme right, Nunes plays in the center, and Boulos and Tabata on the left.

Kataguiri is still not fully convinced of the candidacy hypothesis, which has been aired on the group’s social networks. Until a few weeks ago, he publicly denied the possibility, while firing criticism mainly at Nunes and Boulos.

Now he says that, although he has “more appreciation for the Legislature”, he can accept the task, but he mentions other members who could represent the movement in the race, such as state deputy Guto Zacarias and Cristiano Beraldo, who ran for federal deputy in 2022 and did not elected.

Both, however, also belong to União Brasil, which maintains the risk of imbroglio. To leave the party without losing his mandate, a parliamentarian needs to be expelled or go to court alleging persecution, for example. The next step would be to find an acronym willing to host the candidacy.

Kataguiri considers it premature to discuss his situation in the party, since the MBL’s decision on the candidacy and the name that will go to the polls has not yet been taken. In his second term, the parliamentarian obtained 295,000 votes in 2022, ranking eighth among the most voted feds in the state.

In São Paulo, União Brasil is under the influence of Milton Leite, president of the capital’s Chamber of Councillors, who is an ally of Nunes. There is even an agreement between the party and the mayor to guarantee support for re-election.

Asked by Sheet, Leite stated that “every member of União Brasil has the right to apply to be a candidate”. “We respect our affiliates, but this matter will be decided at the municipal convention”, he added, not forgetting to mention the agreement with Nunes.

In this context, members of the MBL already admit to leaving União Brasil and affiliating Kataguiri to a smaller party, which is willing to launch him as a candidate. In 2020, the group had to leave DEM and joined Patriota to make Arthur’s candidacy viable.

Federal deputy Júnior Bozzella (União Brasil-SP) affirms that Kataguiri’s candidacy is viable and sees his bench colleague’s scale and capillarity.

“But the fact that the MBL is not an organic group to the party must be an obstacle, they are independent. If the movement had a party identity, Kim’s candidacy would be more palatable”, he says.

“An adventure by the party to launch its own candidate would seek to value cadres faithful to the party core”, completes Bozzella, who welcomes the idea that the party launches names in the main cities, paving a national project for 2026.

According to Kataguiri, Arthur’s involvement in the MBL campaign for mayoralty is probable and the image problems associated with the former deputy are manageable. “It’s something that happened, he apologized, he was impeached, he is ineligible. He was punished for his mistake, and he won’t be the candidate.”

One of the main enthusiasts of the candidacy is Renan Santos, national coordinator of the MBL, who sees the chance for the deputy to establish himself as one of the stars of the opposition in Brazil, at a time when former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is suffering setbacks and runs the risk of being ineligible.

“He wants [ser candidato]. He never wanted anything for the Executive, and for the first time I saw Kim wanting it”, Santos told his followers in a recent video. According to him, Kataguiri has already been invited by three parties to be a candidate for mayoralty.

“If he loses [a eleição em São Paulo]he returns and will continue to be his big name in Congress, but, if he wins, he becomes, precisely, one of the four [ou] five main names in politics and the Brazilian right”, said the coordinator.

With its popularity forged on social networks, the MBL has been using its profiles to spread the idea of ​​launching Kataguiri as mayor. Organization leaders say that the deputy’s reach in the digital environment is growing. On YouTube, for example, his channel has more than 1.2 million subscribers.