“My dream was to go to the circus,” said the governor of Minas Gerais, (Novo), to an auditorium crowded on Saturday morning (16), during the Presidency of the Republic, in São Paulo.
Moments earlier, he had been received on stage to the sound of “what this country is,” the Urban Legion’s music, while parliamentarians of the new were lined up to applaud him. Despite all the pomp prepared for the event, which launches the pre-candidacy one year from the 2026 elections, Zema admitted that everything can change if the political conjuncture so demands-specially if the former president () asks.
“I have already participated in two campaigns in 2018 and 2022, and I always say that, during the campaign, adjustments made by political parties are always possible,” Zema said when asked if she would give up the presidency if Bolsonaro asked. “I see these changes in politics naturally. It will depend a lot on conversations between the parties,” he added.
Zema praised the governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), seen by many in politics as the favorite to be the presidential supported by Bolsonaro, and said that a possible candidacy of the holder of the Bandeirantes Palace would not be an impediment to keep him in the dispute.
“The scenario I see is the right to walk with several pre-candidates. And up front, in the second round, everyone will be together. Now, everything in politics changes. There are non-predictable facts, situations that no one can imagine. But today the proposal, and I feel very comfortable, is being a presidential candidate for,” he said.
Zema spoke for about 15 minutes, as anticipated the Sheetpromoting attacks on the President, the PT and the minister, (Supreme Federal Court). The governor said that in 2026 there will be a reckoning “with the three greatest enemies of this country: Lulism, the parasites of the state and the criminal factions.”
“Let’s get to Brasilia to sweep the PT from the map. We will arrive in Brasilia to end Alexandre de Moraes’ abuse and persecution. We will arrive in Brasilia to release Brazil,” said Zema, who said “leaves the BRICS, Brazil” and asked the country to break free from Lulism in the ballot box.
“Brazil is heading towards another economic crisis because it is based on anabolic steroids. The view that spending is life is of a non -size idiocy. As well as the approach of totalitarian regimes.”
Although the governor’s surroundings point to the need for him to become nationally known to make his own pre-candidacy viable, Zema minimized this publicly, claiming to have overcome two elections for the government in Minas Gerais being a neophyte in politics in the first of them.
The state was widely cited in the speech, being seen as a strategic nationally because, located in the central region of a country of continental size, is the second largest Brazilian electoral college and where all presidents elected since redemocratization had most of the votes.
“In Minas Gerais, all Brasis meet,” said the governor of Minas Gerais, who made the event a showcase of actions of his management in the state. “In Minas Gerais there is no alley, a alley that is from factions, where our police cannot enter. Our state is 100% sovereign. When I took over, Minas Gerais was a party for the new cangaço,” he said.
Zema began his speech with reports of a difficult childhood – a compliance in which he said that going to the circus was a luxury for his family – and traced a timeline from his trajectory until he decided to join the new in 2018 in protest to the attempt of then -governor Fernando Pimentel (PT) to reelect himself.
“I always had aversion to politics until the Dilma crisis in 2015 came to come,” he said. “And in Minas Gerais was even worse with the Pimentel government,” he said.
He admitted that, at his national crusade, the biggest challenge will be to win votes in the Northeast region, where, according to him, “the right is less voted in Brazil.”
“The Brazilian is seeing, after 20 years or more, that receiving eternally the Bolsa Familia does not improve his life. It is a perpetuation of a precarious life, without dignity, without future. I believe in jobs. The day the Northeast wakes up for it, and is already waking up, we will see this change,” he said.
The governor added that it is necessary to “create a weaning mechanism” for Bolsa Familia, maintaining payments for those who get a job. “It is preferable to pay Bolsa Familia 3, 4 years for those who are working than paying 30 [para um desempregado].
Zema’s lecture, in Ted Talks format, had the beginning illustrated by videos made by artificial intelligence, simulating situations narrated by the governor, such as his childhood working at his father’s gas station in Araxá.
The event was held at the American Chamber of Commerce, in a neighborhood in the south of São Paulo, and aimed not only to launch the governor’s pre-candidacy but also promote that of the new, which completes ten years of creation this year.
The place was equipped with food trucks to feed those present at the speeches intervals. To receive affiliates from outside Sao Paulo, the new distributed a booklet with guidance on the event, including the weather forecast (“it’s worth taking a light jacket or even a sweater”) and combined Happy Hour on Friday and Saturday.
The gifts were received with tracks and stickers of “Outside Lula” and “Fora Moraes”, some of the most echoed by the parliamentarians who spoke and the militancy itself, who carried tracks, batteries and composed even a song saying that the “STF is pulled from the PT” to viralize on the net.
“We have to do like organized fans and carnival blocks and take the music to the street,” said Rio Grande do Sul state deputy Felipe Camozzato.
In the party’s political speeches, the alleged maturity of the acronym was exalted, which gave a right turn in recent years and embarked on the attacks on Moraes and the STF. Senator Eduardo Girão called for the impeachment of Moraes and the former attorney and former deputy, ambassador of the new, wore a shirt with the sayings “Fora Moraes”.
