With Bolsonaro ineligible, PT is divided over Lula’s next steps

Despite the public celebrations, members of the PT and the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) assess that the ineligibility of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will open a “big question mark” for the political future of the country. On the one hand, PT members estimate that there will be a scattering of right-wing names, while other party names believe that ineligibility increases the pressure for the Lula government to “work out”.

Without a direct antagonist for Lula, Planalto allies admit that the PT will have to increase the government’s popularity and broaden the focus on the economic agenda. The party does not rule out the possibility of Lula seeking re-election, even though it has signaled that he would not run for a new election during the 2022 campaign.

At the same time, other PT members believe that the name of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, will be strengthened if Lula decides not to run for office in 2026. According to this wing, with Bolsonaro’s absence from the electoral scene, Haddad will be the natural successor of the current president on the left, but only if he succeeds in the economic area.

Despite this, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, assessed that this Friday’s decision (30) by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) does not concern the 2026 electoral scenario. [Isso é] something still very far from our concerns. But about the role of the former president in attacks on democracy by not accepting the result of the polls”, defended Padilha on social media.

Along the same lines, the national president of the PT, deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), argued that the fight against the “extreme right” is based on the ineligibility of the former president. “Bolsonaro being ineligible is a victory for democracy and the people who suffered with this man in the Presidency of the Republic. He has no forgiveness or amnesty, he has to stay out of politics so as not to continue with the evils. The extreme right has to be contained”, declared Gleisi.

PT will insist on other actions against Bolsonaro in the electoral sphere

Even with the conclusion of the judgment that declared Bolsonaro ineligible, the PT summit intends to insist on other Electoral Judicial Investigation Actions (AIJE) proposed by the party to the TSE. The evaluation of Lula’s allies is that these other actions are broader than that of the PDT, which questioned the use of the Alvorada Palace for a meeting with foreign ambassadors last year.

In all, the former president must still face another 15 processes within the Electoral Court. In the TSE, for example, the action that the PT accuses Bolsonaro of abuse of political power and misuse of the media due to attacks on the electoral system and alleged blockades by the Federal Highway Police (PRF) for political purposes during the second round of the 2022 elections.

In another action, the coalition that elected Lula claims that Bolsonaro carried out campaign rallies on the premises of the Palácio do Planalto and Palácio da Alvorada to announce support for his candidacy. “By using the palaces as a ‘meeting stage’ with governors, federal deputies and celebrities, he used ‘all the furniture in the public building, as well as his condition as the current President of the Republic to publicize his supporters’, distorting , thus, the purpose of those goods, with the objective of leveraging his candidacy”, alleged the authors of the action in the TSE.

“It is a first step towards accountability for the serial crimes committed by Bolsonaro and the criminal organization he leads. There is still much to be investigated and punished, but we are moving forward in our mission to unite and rebuild Brazil”, he argued. Padilha.

Lula’s allies celebrate TSE’s decision against Bolsonaro

Publicly, Lula’s allies celebrated the result of the TSE trial that made former President Bolsonaro ineligible for an eight-year term. According to the decision of the Electoral Court, the sentence against Bolsonaro will be valid until 2030.

Without citing the vote of Minister Cármen Lúcia, who gave the majority for the conviction, the Minister of the Communication Secretariat (Secom), Paulo Pimenta, said that this Friday (30) was “a great day”. “The period of hatred, denialism has passed. Let’s respect democracy”, stressed Pimenta during an agenda in Rio Grande do Sul for the delivery of “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” residences.

Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice and Public Security, mentioned that “democracy has overcome the toughest stress test of recent decades”. “The TSE judgment emanates important messages: 1. Lying is not a legitimate tool for exercising a public function; 2. Politics is not governed by the “law of the jungle”, in which the strongest can do anything”, he published on Twitter.

Federal deputy André Janones (Avante-MG) published a photo in which he and Lula appear smiling and joked: “Very sad to learn that Bolsonaro has been ineligible for 8 years!” Afterwards, he made a series of criticisms and even curses at the former president and went so far as to say that “Nazism cannot be defeated with flowers”.