Brazil’s MDB, PSDB, União Brasil, and Cidadania parties promise a single presidential candidate

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Four Brazilian parties – MDB, PSDB, União Brasil, and Cidadania – promised to announce a single candidate to run for the Presidency of the Republic.

The meeting was attended by the presidents Luciano Bivar, from União Brasil; Baleia Rossi, from MDB; Bruno Araújo, from PSDB; and Roberto Freire, from Cidadania.

At the end of the conversation, the four parties informed that they are in negotiations to present a candidate for the presidency as an alternative in the democratic field; that on April 14, União Brasil will confirm a party name for consideration by this group of political forces; that the consensus candidate will be announced on May 18; and they call on other democratic political forces to join this project in defense of Brazil and Brazilians.

Of the four parties, two have already announced pre-candidates for the presidency, the PSDB, with the former governor of São Paulo, João Doria, who won the pre-nominations last November, and the MDB, with Senator Simone Tebet. The Cidadania party even announced Senator Alessandro Vieira, but he withdrew his pre-candidacy and left the party in March.

União Brasil received the affiliation of Sergio Moro last week. Moro had been launched as a pre-candidate by Podemos. When he joined União Brasil, he stated that at this point, he was no longer a candidate. União Brasil then said that his joining the party aimed to build a political party project in the state of São Paulo and facilitate the construction of the democratic center.

The single candidacy was also the subject of a meeting in Brasilia on April 6 between Senator Simone Tebet and the former governor of Rio Grande do Sul Eduardo Leite, who lost the PSDB prelims to João Doria.

To reach a consensus name, the parties will evaluate the performance of each pre-candidate in the polls.

“It is important to understand that the democratic center will have its own candidacy. We are united in this purpose; we will have a single candidate, as we will have a single vice-president,” said Simone Tebet.

“We will talk to build convergence with our parties, respecting what Senator Simone said. My party held prelims; it has its pre-candidate established. We respect this; no one is delegitimizing the pre-candidates. They have their legitimacy, but this is not just about meeting formalities, but about helping the country find a path,” said Eduardo Leite.

“Our project, of all those who sat at that table, is not demagogy. The project is a Brazil project. If everyone is bare to sit at a table to give a viable alternative, the great expectation that today demands the Brazilian nation, different from the candidates that are there, then any of these parties that sat at the table spoke today that they would be willing to do that,” said Bivar.

The following have already made their pre-candidatures official: the PL, with Jair Bolsonaro; the PDT, with Ciro Gomes; the Avante, with André Janones; the Unidade Popular, with Leonardo Péricles; the PSTU, with Vera Lúcia; the PCB, with Sofia Manzano; the Democracia Cristã, with José Maria Eymael; and the Novo, with Felipe d’Avila. The PT has announced Lula da Silva but has not yet made his pre-candidacy official.