RenovaBR targets 2024 elections with names from PT to PL – 05/11/2023 – Politics

Six years and three elections after its creation, the RenovaBR school for new politicians has acquired a reach comparable to that of parties —with hundreds of former students working at different levels of power— and has begun to select candidates for next year’s municipal disputes .

The absence of specific agendas is the argument used by the private institution to discourage comparison with traditional parties, but the analogy fits when looking at the numbers of the supra-party organization, which includes representatives of the 31 parties active in the country.

Together, candidates trained by Renova garnered 6.8 million votes in the 2022 elections, spread across 20 states. Today, there are 635 members in elective, administrative and party positions, from city councilors in remote areas to high-ranking federal officials in Brasília.

Of the 174 representatives (acting in office), the majority (140) are councilors, but there are also mayors, vices, state and federal deputies and a senator, Alessandro Vieira (PSDB-SE).

In total, almost 2,100 people attended the free theoretical training and campaign strategy courses, funded by donors who support the project founded in 2017 by businessman and investor Eduardo Mufarej. He is now a member of the executive board, alongside figures such as presenter Luciano Huck, former governor of Espírito Santo Paulo Hartung and economist Ana Carla Abrão.

This Tuesday (9), Renova opened registration for the selection process for those thinking of running in 2024. A previous list already had 7,800 interested in joining the institution, which helped to project newcomers like Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP ), Luiz Lima (PL-RJ) and Vinicius Poit (Novo-SP).

Registration, open until July 28, is followed by tests that assess, for example, integrity and leadership spirit. People from any party and also without affiliation are accepted, as long as they are committed to following democratic principles and want to discuss politics based on data and evidence.

“We have so many people who think differently that it would be difficult to imagine something like a party legend with a single ideology”, says Patrícia Audi, who has been the school’s CEO since January and usually speaks in the broadest “from PT to PL” to refer to the plurality of network.

A novelty of the current selection is that now anyone who has already exercised a mandate can also register. Before, only inexperienced people could enter. The new rule caters to former students who have been elected and are looking for training for mayors and councilors, with virtual and face-to-face classes.

“We are here to help the new ones, but also the good ones who are already in politics and want to improve themselves”, says the executive director. Two classes will be created (one in the next semester and another in early 2024). The number of vacancies is still to be defined.

Criteria such as gender, race and region are also considered in the sieve. Of the total participants to date, 34% were women and 39% were black, brown or indigenous, according to internal data. In a second phase of the selection, the entity will approach figures with potential suggested by former students and parties.

Patricia, in more than 30 years of career, has combined passages in the public sector and the private sector —until last year she was vice-president of Banco Santander in Brazil. A former public servant, she also fought against slave labor as a local leader of the International Labor Organization.

At Renova, he has sought dialogue with parties to break resistance to the group, drawing on the experience of those who have worked directly or indirectly with politicians from different spectrums, such as José Múcio Monteiro, Eliseu Padilha, Flávio Dino, Valdir Simão, José Gregori and Rodrigo Snows.

The executive succeeded Irina Bullara, who today advises the PSDB on the party’s renewal plan.

In Brazil, parties have the exclusivity of electoral participation, and affiliation is a mandatory condition for anyone wishing to run. Renova has already been criticized by acronyms such as PDT and Novo, which tried to veto graduates from the course claiming risk of interference. Today, the weather is friendlier.

The intention, according to Patricia, is to show that the school can contribute to the identification and training of new leaders, as a complement to the work of the parties. “They have seen it with good eyes.”

In its trajectory, the school debuted at the polls in 2018, in an election marked by anti-system discourse and rejection of politicians, went through 2020 and the exceptionality of the pandemic, which crossed the election and enlightened experienced managers, and reached 2022, under the polarization which is still present.

Patricia, who indicates that she agrees with the diagnosis, says that “there is no better way to improve politics than through politics”. Shortly after the January 8 coup acts, she said in an interview with Sheet that the attack reinforced “the importance of the existence of schools of democracy and political leadership”.

With traffic in Congress, Patricia avoids commenting on the difficulty of the Lula government (PT) to have a support base. The CEO is part of the Council for Economic, Social and Sustainable Development, the Conselhão. When she was part of the Michel Temer (MDB) administration, she became the executive secretary of the collegiate.

In addition to preparing new staff, the entity has been intensifying assistance to those sponsored who are in public office, but denies ideological interference —a fear pointed out at the beginning by detractors of the project. Renova says it is a technical follow-up on relevant topics.

In February, a seminar on tax reform was held in Brasília with the participation of Bernard Appy, secretary of the Ministry of Finance. In the audience were parliamentarians like Tabata, who is a deputy and pre-candidate for mayor of São Paulo, and Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR).

The institution offers some of its activities to politicians who were not its students, in the case of Moro, in order to help qualify the debates. A meeting on sustainability and low-carbon economy will take place this month, also open to parliamentarians not linked to the school.

“In a moment of polarization, we can include people with different thoughts, from the most varied ideological spectrums, and bring them to the classroom, to an environment of knowledge. We want to help discuss a project for the country”, says Patricia.

Some alumni who are representatives or hold management positions

• Camila Jara (PT-MS), federal deputy
• Daniel Soranz (PSD-RJ), federal deputy
• Guto Zacarias (União Brasil-SP), state deputy
• Luiz Lima (PL-RJ), federal deputy
• Marina Helou (Rede-SP), state deputy
• Pedro Aihara (Patriota-MG), federal deputy
• Samuel Viana (PL-MG), federal deputy
• Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP), federal deputy
• Augusto de Arruda Botelho (PSB-SP), National Secretary of Justice
• Joenia Wapichana (Rede-RR), president of Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples)
• Felipe Rigoni (União Brasil-ES), State Secretary for the Environment of Espírito Santo
• Lucinha Mota (PSDB-PE), state secretary of Justice and Human Rights of Pernambuco
• Rossieli Soares (PSDB-SP), State Secretary of Education of Paraná
• Washington Bonfim (PSB-PI), Piauí State Planning Secretary
• Aline Torres (MDB-SP), Municipal Secretary of Culture of São Paulo
• Marcelo Calero (PSD-RJ), Municipal Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro