Lula Wants Worker’s Party Mayoral Candidates in Ten State Capitals

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday, January 17th, in front of the national directorate of the Worker’s Party (PT), former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated that the party should have its own candidates in as many important cities as possible in this year’s municipal elections.

However, in reserved conversations with party leaders, Lula has said he is pleased if the PT heads the tickets in ten capitals.

Rio de Janeiro, where the party is negotiating with Marcelo Freixo (PSOL), and Porto Alegre, with Manuela d’Ávila (PCdoB) as the left-wing’s principal names, are not on the former president’s list. According to PT leaders, Lula wants the party to have its own candidates in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Salvador, Manaus, Teresina, Aracaju, Natal and Cuiabá.

According to PT leaders, Lula’s speech on the largest possible number of candidatures targets the PT base and has a strategic nature. The ex-president does not want the party to “readily” support allies in cities as important as Rio and Porto Alegre. According to a leader, Lula has said that “alliance does not equal surrender”. Therefore, the PT must first present its own candidates and then, if required, negotiate their withdrawal for alliance purposes.

The ex-president reiterated the strategy during a meeting of the PT national directorate that chose the party’s new executive committee in São Paulo. Gleisi Hoffmann, the party’s president, said PT expects to elect more mayors this year than in 2016, when the party suffered one of the worst electoral defeats in its history.

“We’re in the process of renewing cadres. Therefore, in many cities we will have new candidates who can either be elected or strengthened for the next elections. We expect that in this election the PT will elect more mayors than it did in 2016. The framework is different, the party has greatly restored its relationship with society,” she said.

According to her, Lula’s position does not mean the party has given up alliances. Gleisi announced that the festival to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of PT, on February 7th in Rio, will hold a panel on the left-wing’s perspectives with the five main opposition parties (PT, PSB, PDT, PSOL and PCdoB). The presidents of PDT, Carlos Lupi, and PSB, Carlos Siqueira, have already confirmed their presence.

According to her, the central goal for choosing allies will be to oppose Jair Bolsonaro’s government. The PT deferred the discussion on municipal elections and alliance politics until February 7th. Gleisi admitted that the process of choosing the new party leaders – through direct municipal and state elections – delayed the drafting of an electoral calendar for the party, one of the main points of criticism of its internal dissidents.

Regarding the election in São Paulo, two days after Lula had said that there could be “news”, Gleisi said that the PT is most likely to choose a name from among the eight pre-candidates who have already placed their hats in the ring.

“Our effort is to convince the municipal directorate and the pre-candidates not to have primary elections, but to reach an understanding. Other names may come up. We can talk, but we have names in place and it will most likely be on these names that we will try to compromise,” she said.

The PT president took the opportunity to rebut the text in which Deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP) makes harsh criticism of Lula, saying in an interview said it is hard for a “communist” candidate to be elected president. “I am saddened that Orlando wrote the text, because it was based on parts of the interview that were taken out of context.”