The national directory of PSOL approved this Saturday, 30, by 35 votes to 25, support for the former president’s candidacy Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (EN) to Palácio do Planalto in the October elections. It will be the first time, since its founding in 2004, based on a dissent from the PT, that the left-wing party will not have a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.
“The union of the left around Lula’s candidacy is undoubtedly the best tactic to defeat Bolsonaro. We are happy and hopeful with this decision. Next week we will start the conversations to participate in the political council of the campaign and the coordination of the government program”, says the president of PSOL, Juliano Medeiros.
According to the psolist leader, the party’s next step will be to dialogue with the Sustainability Network, with which the party has closed a party federation, so that they formally join the PT-led coalition.
The historic decision was not passed without crying and gnashing of teeth, as shown by the difference of only ten votes in the directory. Although the national leadership, headed by Juliano Medeiros, had signaled support for Lula, a minority current in the party wanted to launch the candidacy of federal deputy Glauber Braga (RJ) for the presidency. There is still a lot of criticism in the caption of the choice of former toucan governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) to be Lula’s deputy.
There were also disagreements about the decision of Guilherme Boulos, presidential candidate for the acronym in 2018 and runner-up in the election for Mayor of São Paulo in 2020, to give up his candidacy for the São Paulo government in favor of Fernando Haddad (PT). The dissident group even launched the name of councilor Mariana Conti, from Campinas, and this theme should also spark the meeting.
Adherence to Lula involves the imposition of several programmatic points that the PSOL says it will not give up. A list of twelve initial proposals has already been drawn up, and includes the repeal of pension and labor reforms, the end of the spending cap, the “resumption of public control of Petrobras” and the “social control over the monopolies of the mainstream media”. Most of them have already been accepted by the PT.
left front
Because of the PSOL meeting, the PT decided to postpone the launch of Lula’s candidacy to May 7, which was initially scheduled for this Saturday. And it is not for less: the adhesion of the PSOL will make Lula close a front with all the main left parties.
The PT already has the support of the PSB – which appointed deputy Alckmin – and the PV and PCdoB, with whom he formed a federation. On Wednesday, the 27th, he received the formal support of the Network, in an articulation led by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (AP), who will play an important role in Lula’s campaign.
The mass adhesion of leftist acronyms to Lula left not only discontented in the PSOL. At Rede, former senator Heloísa Helena, a former PT member, refuses to support Lula and has already announced that she is sympathetic to Ciro Gomes (PDT). Former minister and also former senator Marina Silva, another former PT member, remains unclear, but criticizes PT, whose government she left unhappy in May 2008 – she was Minister of the Environment.