Paes uses ‘Lula Day’ and targets Bolsonarist redoubt for 2024 – 08/11/2023 – Politics

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD), took advantage of President Lula’s (PT) visit to the city to already articulate for the 2024 election race. — Paes made moves to achieve two goals dear to his bid for re-election.

The first was to strengthen his relationship with Lula and the PT to guarantee support for his candidacy in the next election. The second, to increase its popularity in the west zone, an important electoral stronghold that today leans towards Bolsonarism.

This Thursday (10), the city hall organized two events with the president: the launch of the work on the Campo Grande ring road, in the west of the city, and the visit to what will be the new Impa Tech (Institute of Pure Mathematics and Applied), in the port area. In both, the mayor announced investments by the federal government in the city and made official the agreement to restrict flights at Santos Dumont airport —one of his main agendas this year.

The two agendas, however, escaped the tone of impersonality that official events tend to have. On the contrary, they could sound like campaign acts for the current president. Both events had shouts of “olé, hello, Lula” driven by the city hall’s own ceremonial, which at one point even exalted the president as “an idea”.

“Lula is an idea, which cannot be arrested, killed and never ended,” said the event’s ceremonial organizer, referring to the phrase said by the PT in 2018, shortly before being arrested.

Jingles from past Lula campaigns were part of the event’s soundtrack. The organization played from the classic “Lula Lá”, from 1989, to its most recent version, which rocked the 2022 presidential race.

The backdrop for the platform given to Lula is Paes’ attempt to ensure that the president and the PT are on his side in the 2024 municipal election. The mayor does not want the party to launch its own candidate that could take away their votes.

On the contrary, the current occupant of the City Palace aims to increasingly link his image to Lula in order to attract those more left-wing voters not so used to Paes’ centrist record. Around the mayor, the bet is that the president will serve as a good electoral force and reciprocate the efforts that the PSD leader in Rio made for the PT in the second round of 2022.

The PT, however, has already set its price for this: it wants to nominate Paes’ runner-up. Otherwise, they claim that they can launch a PT candidate as a candidate or even support the name indicated by PSOL.

The assessment among PT supporters in Rio is that it is not enough for Paes to give the president a platform. There are fears that a possible fourth term for the mayor will last only two years, as he must be licensed to run for governor of the state in 2026.

If he appoints him as vice-president of his group, Paes would maintain, in the view of the PT, political hegemony in Rio if he manages to win the dispute for the state in three years — and this scenario, although still distant, is far from the PT’s wishes.

The PT still hasn’t said who it wants to nominate for Paes’ deputy, but some names have already been aired. Among them, Marcelo Freixo, president of Embratur and former opponent of the mayor in past elections; former President of the Assembly André Ceciliano, who now holds a position within the Ministry of Institutional Relations; and even Tainá de Paula, municipal secretary of the Environment.

Yielding to vice-president, however, will not be an easy decision for Paes. According to allies, the mayor will have to be careful not to commit the same thing he did in the last municipal election. In 2020, in exchange for support, Paes chose as his running mate Nilton Caldeira, at the time the municipal president of the PL.

Since taking office at City Hall, the relationship between the two has had several turbulences. Caldeira did not attend this Thursday’s events, nor was he mentioned at the ceremonies.

In this Thursday’s events, Paes also sought to show attention to the west side of the city. Unlike his two previous administrations, which were marked by major international events in Rio, the mayor has not been able to do something symbolic to register the third time he occupies the post.

At the beginning of his term, Paes was advised by marketers to assume a role of “caretaker of the city”, taking care of issues such as asphalt, lighting and cleaning in Rio. However, he received criticism for focusing on the more central areas and leaving aside the west zone — region where the mayor has suffered resistance in the past.

He therefore preferred to adopt a new posture and focus on the issue of transport. Today, one of his promises is to improve the BRT Transoeste corridor in Rio de Janeiro.

Campo Grande, where work on a ring road began this Thursday, is the most populous neighborhood in Brazil. It was also where Paes had the worst result in the 2020 elections and has been a stronghold of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The former representative has already announced that he will choose someone from his group to run for mayoralty next year.