Tarcísio’s Choices – 7/2/2023 – Opinion

Since the election campaign, and especially after winning the São Paulo government, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) has followed a well-rehearsed strategy to establish himself on the national political scene.

He presents himself as an experienced technician, who prioritizes the improvement of public management; of liberal thinking in economics, but averse to cultural and ideological wars; on the right, but willing to compromise with other forces.

If such an image is compatible with his trajectory in public life, it is no less true, however, that Tarcísio owes his entry into politics and the seat at Bandeirantes to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), and the ex-president’s followers still form the basis of safer support for the former Minister of Infrastructure.

With Bolsonaro made ineligible, a pupil in such a prominent post will naturally be seen as a candidate for presidential succession. The governor will have to practice, under the most attentive eyes of the electorate, his balance between the search for an identity and loyalty to the creator.

Running away from choices will not be possible, as is now seen in the vexing case of the homage sanctioned by the Tarcísio government to a symbolic character of repression during the dictatorship period — Colonel Erasmo Dias, who died in 2010.

The Legislative Assembly had the disastrous idea of ​​giving the name of the military man, former state secretary of Security and former deputy, to a road junction in the region of Paraguaçu Paulista. The project depended on the approval of the Executive, which ended up being signed by the vice-governor, Felício Ramuth (PSD). Tarcísio was out of the country.

Erasmo Dias defended until the end of his life the measure that marked his participation in the authoritarian regime —a violent police intervention in an act of PUC-SP students, in 1977. The current governor of São Paulo would probably not say the same, but nor was he willing to prevent the homage to the mastermind of the invasion.

The role of a pragmatic and conflict-averse manager has a limited scope when there are relevant political forces prone to attacking democratic values. Whether or not he is a candidate for the Planalto, Tarcísio will face decisions more difficult than the appropriate name of a road —and they will involve living characters.

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