Under risk, Salles criticizes PL for nodding to Nunes – 06/03/2023 – Politics

Federal deputy Ricardo Salles (PL) criticized his party leader, Valdemar Costa Neto, for approaching gestures towards Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), his virtual rival in the race for São Paulo City Hall in 2024. Salles sees his plan compete with the support of threatened ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

This Friday (2), Nunes stood on stage alongside Bolsonaro and Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) at a military ceremony in the capital of São Paulo.

It was the mayor’s second public appearance with the former president, amidst doubts about the chances of Salles’ candidacy succeeding. The previous one took place at the beginning of last month, during an event of the PL in the Legislative Assembly. On the occasion, the two also attended a lunch.

This Saturday (3), the former Minister of the Environment during the Bolsonaro administration first wrote on his Twitter profile: “Who walks with pigs, eats bran”.

Hours later, he published again, pointing out reasons that would be behind the intention of the PL wings to embark on the Nunes campaign. Salles, who wants to present himself as a representative of the right in the election, recalled that the current mayor did not declare support for Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections and has already stated in an interview that he will not be the candidate in that field.

“I’ll explain: Valdemar, through Rep. Antonio Carlos Rodrigues, former minister of Dilma [Rousseff] and the CURRENT link between the PL and the PT, it has 1 Secretariat and 2 subprefectures in the Nunes administration, which did not support Bolsonaro last year and even told Estadão that it did not want to be the right-wing candidate”, said the PL parliamentarian.

The deputy explored Nunes’ link with former PT candidate Marta Suplicy, municipal secretary of International Relations, to reinforce the idea of ​​the opponent’s ties with the left and the centrão.

Salles stated that the mayor’s party has ministries in the Lula government (PT) and is part of the president’s base in Congress. Nunes works to position himself as a more moderate center option.

“The City Hall, from Nunes and Marta, is full of PT supporters. In short, for Centrão it’s all business. They are not conservative, liberal or right-wing. Much less opposition. They will never be. They will always be government. That’s not what we went through 4 years fighting the left. Shame”, he concluded.

Also this Saturday, the former minister published a video on Instagram with the caption: “As relevant as ideological choices, the degradation of Brazilian politics requires us, above all, to separate the serious ones from the hoaxes. This story of pragmatism has become an excuse for justify supporting thieves, vagabonds and monthly payers”.

Salles faces resistance from sectors of the PL, mainly at the municipal level, who are against his candidacy and support Nunes. The former environment minister, meanwhile, is working to secure Bolsonaro’s support and convince the party to launch its campaign.

In recent weeks, the mayor has redoubled his efforts to achieve an alliance with the acronym, for which he has reserved, until further notice, the vacancy of deputy on the ticket. Nunes was also encouraged to join the PL to run for re-election, which, in practice, would bury Salles’ project once and for all.

The mayor looked for leaders of the PL of São Paulo to join his wife, Regina Carnovale Nunes, to the acronym. The move was read as a gesture to try to attract the party to its coalition.

In the background is still a competition between Nunes and Salles for the support of Tarcísio, who has remained neutral so far.

The campaigns of both see federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) as the main opponent to be beaten, who reached the second round in 2020 against Bruno Covas (PSDB). Also considered is the candidacy of federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB).

The imbroglio surrounding Salles exposed a clash between the Bolsonarist portion of the PL, which works to consolidate the name of the former minister, and the “root” wing, considered more political —and which the former minister links, in a critical way, to the center.

In the Nunes administration, the party dominated the Environment Secretariat. The municipal president of the acronym, councilor Isac Félix, vocalizes in public the intention to support the reelection of the current occupant of the chair and says that the association colleague cannot impose a candidacy “down the throat”.

Bolsonaro would have already said, during an Agrishow event, that he should not embark on the Nunes campaign because he did not receive his support in the dispute with Lula in 2022 and because the mayor has already declared that he is not from the right, but from the center, as shown in the Panel column. , from the Sheet.

Salles has been saying that he has Bolsonaro’s support. The former president, however, has already said that the final decision will be made by the municipal leadership of the party and Valdemar.

Amidst the disputes, the PL leadership began to air the possibility of launching Senator Marcos Pontes (PL-SP) as a candidate for mayoralty. Valdemar’s assessment is that a profile that is too far to the right will not be successful in the capital and that a name like that of the former astronaut would be more palatable.

Salles has used the CPI of the MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), for which he is the rapporteur in Congress, to gain the spotlight and gain a foothold in the dispute. He talks about including the MTST (Homeless Workers Movement) in the investigations, which is linked to Boulos, to harass the Psolist.