The Democratic Party of Labor (PDT), which appointed former minister Ciro Gomes to the presidency of Brazil, announced on Tuesday its support for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the second round of elections, which will take place on the 30th. October.
The president of the PDT, Carlos Lupi, informed the press that, after a meeting of the party leadership, it was “unanimously” decided to support “what is closest, which is Lula’s candidacy”, towards the president Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election.
Lula won the first round last Sunday with 48.4% of the vote, against 43.2% of the far-right president Bolsonaro.
Gomes, third in all polls, finally finished in fourth place, with 3.04%, behind center-right senator Simone Tebet, third with 4.1%.
The now former candidate of the PDT, who in the election campaign he was as severe in his criticism of Bolsonaro as he was of Lulahe has not yet openly stated his personal position for the second round, but, according to Lupi, he has promised to “follow the party’s position”.
The conditions
Lupi assured that neither Gomes nor the PDT can be “omitted” at this moment, when Brazil will have to choose between “a democrat like Lula” and an “aspiring dictator like Bolsonaro”.
According to the president of the PDT, the only conditions for supporting Lula have already been accepted by the progressive front that postulates it.
These are proposals defended by Gomes in his campaign, such as the adoption of a universal minimum income plan, debt renegotiation who have the poorest families and a program that establishes full-time education for children and young people.
The PDT, the historical formation of the Brazilian center-left, thus joins the vast progressive front formed by Lula for these elections, which now has eleven parties.
After Sunday’s elections, in which Lula finally gained a smaller advantage than polls predicted, the former president announced he will work to form a “Democratic bloc” with the aim of fighting Bolsonaro. His campaign to unite cheering beyond the left, in fact, began months ago, when he chose his running mate, the center-right Geraldo Alckmin.
Along the way, he also received support from economists and jurists from the considered moderate wing.
Now definitely Lula will focus on getting more support from the center and center right.
One of the keys to realizing this rapprochement of the more conservative factions will be in Lula’s will to have an economic proposal “malleable”, considers Arthur Ituassu, professor of political communication at the Catholic University of Rio.
It’s surely you will have to negotiate your plan, which includes leftist policies such as greater social investment and redistribution of the tax burden.
“It will be fundamental … it will be the way to conquer an unstable center”, Ituassu insists.
The markets also expressed their preference for Bolsonaro and his liberal policies.
According to analysts, the Social Democrat leader should also correct some of his mistakes in the campaign for the first round.
For example, according to Paulo Calmon, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, Lula has focused “only on the results of previous mandates”, without proposals or “plans for the future”.
It also weighed the shadow of corruption scandals when the left ruled.
But Goulart insists that more than acting out proposals, the more important thing is the “emotional connection with the popular classes”, the basis of his electorate.
And “achieving an image of stability, tranquility”, which makes us dream of the prospect of “a better life”.
Source: AFP and EFE
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Source: Clarin
