President of the PSDB lobbies pro-Jockey in SP – 03/03/2024 – Panel

The national president of the PSDB, Marconi Perillo, has been lobbying for the Jockey Club in the city of São Paulo, which is experiencing tension with the Ricardo Nunes (MDB) administration.

The action takes place at a time when the party is discussing the direction it will take in the capital’s election and is being courted by the mayor. Allies of Nunes and councilors have expressed discomfort with Perillo’s possible conflict of interests.

In a note to the Panel, the toucan rejects any overlapping of his activities and states that he did not participate in any meeting that dealt with party support in the São Paulo election.

One of Perillo’s biggest current concerns is with a project that the City Council is expected to vote on in the coming weeks that prohibits the use of animals in sporting activities involving betting, which would make the Jockey’s operation unviable.

According to reports, Perillo has been calling parliamentarians and trying to articulate the disapproval of the project, authored by councilor Xexéu Trípoli —ironically, also a tucano.

One of the biggest supporters of approval is Milton Leite (União Brasil), president of the House and one of Nunes’ closest allies.

“It has a great chance of approval. São Paulo no longer supports horse racing. I don’t want to see horses being whipped,” Leite told the Panel.

In recent years, under Leite’s command, the São Paulo Legislature approved projects for expropriation and creation of a park in the Jockey space in Cidade Jardim (west zone).

In July last year, the president of the Chamber said that the idea would be to take the site as payment for the debt of R$400 million in IPTU and R$240 million in ISS. The hippodrome challenges values. The location is also coveted by the real estate market, due to its size and location.

Perillo provides consultancy services for CSN (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional), owned by businessman Benjamin Steinbruch, who is also president of Jockey. The toucan himself is an advisor to the club.

In 2023, Perillo met with members of the São Paulo City Council on different occasions, including with Nunes himself and in the company of Steinbruch, to discuss the imbroglio related to the location.

According to those involved, some of the meetings were tense, as the emedebista considered the Jockey representatives’ proposals unfavorable for the municipality.

While acting in Jockey’s interests, Perillo commands the PSDB, which has been trying to define its position in the 2024 election in the capital. Nunes seeks the support of the tucanos and tries to prevent the party from forming a coalition with Tabata Amaral (PSDB) or launching its own name.

As the Panel showed, Perillo recently spoke with former president Michel Temer (MDB), Nunes’ electoral leader, and said that the mayor should not go to Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) event on Avenida Paulista if he wanted the party’s support. He also stated that the PSDB would like to nominate a name for the vice-president.

Perillo denies having discussed the topic with Temer, who, in turn, says that the considerations in the conversation were made to be analyzed over time.

Other side

In a note, the Tucano president says that he never participated “in meetings in which the PSDB’s support for any candidate for mayor of the city of São Paulo was discussed.”

He states that whoever accuses him of a conflict of interest “needs to prove, firstly, that I ever participated in any negotiations regarding party support for anyone for this year’s election in São Paulo. And, secondly, that one thing was conditioned on another.”

Perillo states that his professional activities “are not, never have been and will never be linked” to his political or party activities.

“Regarding alliances, I reaffirm here what I have said since I assumed the national presidency of the party: São Paulo can resolve São Paulo”, concludes Perillo.

In a statement, Nunes states that she is not under pressure from the former governor, “especially because she would never accept any pressure from anyone.” The mayor says that Perillo “represents with dignity the PSDB, which, historically, has always been against the left in the state and city of São Paulo.”

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