After two PT councilors join the PL Bolsanista and PSOL against the creation of an armed core of the Municipal Guard, the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes (PSD), has expressed irritation with the party of President Lula, who is ally. Probable candidate for governor next year, Paes glimpses even more dissonant clashes with the acronym in the state context – and seeks, from now, “scratching the ground”, as he and allies have been classifying the moment of knowing who will really be with him in the 2026 election.
Like others in the country, the mayor is from the line that the relationship with Lula is one, while with the PT itself is another. Even so, the acronym has three secretariats in the current management: environment, human rights and housing. In everyday life, the differences appear, and the surroundings of Paes evaluates that public safety will cause friction during the 2026 campaign, with petistas disagreeing with proposals presented. The tendency is for the PT not to gain much space in the formulation of ideas on the subject.
The vote “no” for the creation of the armed arm of the guard given by the left councilors Leonel and Maíra do PT also led the mayor’s allies to expose what they usually talk about behind the scenes: the fact that Paes is loyal to Lula and praises him despite the president’s poor assessment in the Southeast. On social networks, the mayor’s right arm in politics, Pedro Paulo, opened the viscera of dissatisfaction.
“Now is the time to take children out of the room, scratch the ground. Eduardo Paes (and much for his insistence, for his personal relationship with the president) built the only support of a government to Lula in the South and Southeast regions. And everyone knows how the federal government’s approval is,” wrote the federal deputy and president of the PSD-RJ. “The one who is the central project of the municipal government in support of Rio, in what we suffer the most, security, and then we see this behavior of members of the base, especially the PT. We will make it clear that, regardless of merit, votes like today do not fit principles but the courage to flag with the strategic ally.”
The parliamentarian also said that, in acting in Brasilia, ends up voting in projects that disagrees in the name of loyalty to the Lula administration.
Despite the public fight, the PT has a friendly state direction to the mayor. The wing hard in Maricá, a petista stronghold in the metropolitan region, runs the party and reinforces that he is with “programmatic”, not just pragmatic. Alphinenet, thus, other subtitles that make up the City Hall without signing electoral commitment.
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– The PT is programming with Eduardo Paes in the Alliance. It is a party that has capillarity and history in Rio de Janeiro. There are other parties that make up the City Hall and are not in the Eduardo Paes 2026 project – says PT state president João Maurício de Freitas. – It is important to remember the great partnership of the federal government with Mayor Eduardo Paes, fundamental for the Ring Road of Campo Grande, all federal areas in Porto, Leopoldina, the renewal of the BRT fleet.
Joãozinho, as the leader is known, says that the party councilors need to know “what is at stake” in the discussion of public safety.
– This debate requires a lot of maturity and patience to build the consensus that such a priority agenda needs. The left is evolving to this debate, but we have to evolve even more.
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While the state president is milder, the party’s main censer in Rio, Washington Quaquá, replied Pedro Paulo in the networks. Mayor of Maricá and national vice president of the PT, he even gave reason to the dissatisfaction of Paes with the petist councilors by stating that “it has no sense for the party to be government and half of the bench vote against a strategic theme for the government and the city.” He claimed, however, that Pedro needs to “lower the ball” and “reduce arrogance” when talking about the party.
“It’s good my friend Pedro Paulo to reduce his arrogance because this election for governor will not be easy for anyone. He should not row and has no authority to hit publicly in the PT. May he respect us!”, He published. “So let’s all go down the ball and face together next year’s election and not treat each other.”
Internal research, both from the mayor’s and opponents group, often show that the relationship with Lula pulls down today in Rio, the cradle of Bolsonarism. In the municipal election, which is not “married” with the presidential, it was easy to avoid the consequences, but the scenario in the state is more complex because of the concomitance of the dispute with the national.
