Federal Deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP) launched on Wednesday, 9, his candidacy for the presidency of the PT with a speech that opposes that of the former mayor of Araraquara Edinho Silva, named by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to command the party. Falcão’s entrance to the match attracts the support of the PT’s left, but also challenges Lula’s group, since the current building a new Brazil (CNB) is cracked.
“My candidacy is not against Edinho or against Lula, so much so that I am committed to his reelection in 2026. But we want a reconnection with our social base. The PT cannot be a party only of parliamentarians, trends and heads of the executive,” said the deputy.
Falcão has already chaired the PT in the 1990s and also from 2011 to 2017. Under the slogan “by the base, build hope”, the launch of his campaign occurs at a time of contestation of Edinho’s candidacy by a wing of his own current, the CNB, who wants to maintain the party treasurer, Gleide Andrade. Edinho does not accept, on the grounds that renewal is needed at the Finance Secretariat.
The PT dispute has even allegations of abuse of economic power, the practice that the party has always condemned. In a letter addressed to the acronym summit, leader Valter Pomar-who registered his candidacy for the PT presidency for the leftist tendency-wanted to know if the national directory was paying jets to the former mayor of Araraquara to make campaign trips.
After the negative of Senator Humberto Costa, interim president of the PT, and treasurer Gleide, Pomar did not leave for less. “In view of the emphasis that Edinho has been giving the theme of the party’s treasury, I imagine that he understands the need to be transparent in this and other questions,” he wrote. “After all, petista democracy does not rhyme with abuse of economic power or money from entrepreneurs interfering with the PED,” he added, in reference to the process of direct elections, with the vote of the affiliates, who will choose the new petista summit.
Edinho did not want to speak up. Falcão, in turn, said he did not fit him to answer the question. The elections that will renew the PT command throughout the country are scheduled for July 6 and applications can be made until May. In addition to Edinho, Falcão and Pomar, the other postulant to command the PT is Romênio Pereira. Current Secretary of International Relations of the Party, Romênio is part of the current PT movement.
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In 2022, both Edinho and Falcão were coordinators of Lula’s campaign. The two, however, have opposite views on the direction of the party and the government.
The former mayor of Araraquara defends the approach of the PT with the political center. “I am optimistic about our ability to pierce the bubble of polarization. We have to make an effort to deepen the dialogue with those who are not with us,” argues Edinho. At the other end, Falcão claims that it is not possible to “make average” with the opponents.
“What does the end of polarization mean? We are in a clash with the right. We need to break the egg of the serpent. Fascism prospered where people were repelled from politics,” said the deputy. “We cannot lose the PT’s identity or turn into an institutional arm of the government.”
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Even before Gleisi Hoffmann left the PT presidency a month ago to take over the Secretariat of Institutional Relations -a ministry that takes care of the government’s articulation with Congress -the party’s dispute already indicated insurmountable conflicts.
Although one of the outbreaks of the fight is the control of the PT treasury, which has the key to the safe where the party and electoral funds are deposited, a sum of nearly $ 800 million per year, the crack is also about the conception of country and the future of PT Post Lula.
In this clash there are not only accusations of mass affiliations in the party, use of the public machine and even business resources to obtain votes in favor of a particular candidate as an arm wrestling to see who will run the campaign for a new Lula term in 2026, or even who will be his political heir. So far, however, this name is far from built.
