After the defeat in São Paulo in the 2024 elections, Guilherme Boulos (Psol-SP) has admitted the weakening of the left in the country. In an interview with the newspaper Valor Econômico, Boulos stated that the left needs to change its discourse so as not to suffer a “historic defeat”.
“What I am proposing is that the left makes a change to respond to this scenario at the risk of suffering a historic defeat in the sense that we have a political hegemony of the extreme right for one or two decades in Brazil,” said the deputy.
For him, the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2022 was not able to prevent the advance of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and his allies, who he usually calls the “extreme right”. “Anyone who thought that the victory of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) two years ago would represent the end of Bolsonarism in the country and that the extreme right would not advance in the world was mistaken,” said Boulos in the interview with Valor.
At an event for activists, on Thursday (7), Boulos gave a speech in which he called the “extreme right” a “weed” that “grows fast”. “When you plant hatred, fear, as the extreme right does, in this country and in the world, it blooms faster,” he said in his first public event after the defeat.
In the interview, however, Boulos also emphasized that the right has managed to carry out what he called a “dispute of values”. “The far right, all over the world, has dedicated itself to a dispute over horizons, world views, values. The left believed that social improvements would be sufficient and did not enter this dispute. The result is that sectors that improved their lives during the PT governments started to vote for the extreme right”, he said.
Boulos, who was already a candidate for president in 2018, ran for mayor in 2020, was the best-voted deputy in São Paulo in 2022, in addition to the municipal dispute in 2024, said he was patient when projecting his political future. “I have historical patience. You don’t reach the goals you want in politics by building artificial shortcuts”, said the deputy.
Boulos says he recognized Nunes’ victory, but that the campaign was “low and dirty”
For the second time in a row, Boulos lost the race for mayor of São Paulo. This time, the difference was almost 20 percentage points. The victorious candidate was the re-elected mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), supported by the state governor, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), and by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
In the newspaper interview Economic Value, Boulos said he did not call Nunes to congratulate him on the result. Despite recognizing his rival’s victory and not questioning the result, the deputy classified the campaign as “very low and dirty”. “With Covas it was a civilized campaign. Now it was a very low and dirty campaign, with an unreasonable attack. Logically I recognized the result. It’s not from my side that you’ll see ballot questioning”, said Boulos when comparing the 2020 and 2024 disputes. In 2020, Boulos was defeated by Bruno Covas (PSDB), who had Nunes as his vice-president.
When talking about the campaign, the deputy, who previously led the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), also cited governor Tarcísio’s speeches in the second round. According to Tarcísio, the PCC recommended voting for Boulos. “This was an electoral crime. I was attacked with lies of all kinds. This cannot be normalized”, added Boulos.
Boulos calls amnesty for January 8 prisoners “political absurdity”
After the defeat in the municipal election, Boulos will return to his mandate as deputy in Brasília. Among the highlighted issues, Boulos promised to face the bill that intends to amnesty those arrested on January 8th. “It would be the biggest political absurdity in recent history if this happened. To amnesty the participants of January 8th is to buy into the view that it was a ladies’ picnic and not an attempted coup,” said Boulos.
The amnesty bill was ready to be approved by the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ) when a decision by President Arthur Lira (PP-AL) changed the processing of the proposal. Now, the project will have to be analyzed by a special commission. Behind the scenes, deputies claim that Lira’s intention is to use the special commission to raise awareness among the population about the situation of prisoners, taking families to speak at public hearings.
The possibility of reversing Bolsonaro’s ineligibility is also rejected by the deputy. “It would be an immeasurable absurdity, after everything Bolsonaro has done, for him to be normalized again and for an ineligibility that had a reason to be reversed on the floor of the Chamber.”
