Brazil elections 2022: Workers’ Party (PT) forms a federation with communists and greens

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Workers’ Party (PT) announced a four-year pact to form an electoral and government federation with the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) and the Green Party. It will be the initial basis of support for the candidacy of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an attempt to defeat President Jair Bolsonaro, who will seek reelection.

One of the objectives of the party coalition, according to them, will be to reach “large progressive benches for the National Congress and Legislative Assemblies, as well as a significant number of governors”, which will allow the elected government “to have the conditions to promote changes and great transformations” in Brazil.

“This April 18 is a historic milestone in Brazilian political life. The Brazil Federation of Hope (FE Brasil) is born,” says the PT communiqué released on April 18 after an agreement between the heads of the three forces.

According to the new electoral legislation, FE Brasil will have to act as a single party with internal debate and commitments that will last the four years of administration if former president Lula da Silva is elected in the presidential elections in October.

According to the communiqué, FE Brasil “was constituted as an expression of the need and desire for the union of popular, democratic, and progressive forces to, together with a broad alliance, restore democracy, promote the reconstruction and transformation of Brazil and guarantee a dignified life” for the population.

“FE Brazil has as a challenge a great responsibility: to act as a decisive force to free our country from the nefarious government of the extreme right,” claims the document signed by the head of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, that of the PCdoB, Luciana Santos, and the leader of the Green Party, José Luiz Penna.

The announcement is part of the PT’s institutional moves to seek to elect large center-left and left-wing blocs in the Congress that will emerge from the October elections, one of Lula da Silva’s objectives in order, in case of victory, not to need to seek votes among the official right-wing of the so-called old politics, known as the “Centrão”, today with current President Jair Bolsonaro.

As of a law sanctioned in 2021, the party federations must remain united for at least four years, functioning as a single party in Congress. This change, opposed by President Bolsonaro, allows parties to circumvent electoral alliances formally dissolved as soon as the election is over.