Following the inflamed speech on Paulista Avenue on September 7, when he used terms such as “dictatorship” and “tyranny” to refer to the Supreme Court (STF), Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) has avoided public commitments and political posts on social networks-precisely in the decisive week of the judgment of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
In the only external agenda of the week, Tarcisio quickly participated in an event at FIESP (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) on Monday morning, when he used a moderate speech to entrepreneurs, but avoided talking to the journalists present. Then he spent the next two days in internal orders.
Silence extends to social networks. Since September 7, Tarcísio made only one post, referring to a police operation in the Moinho favela, in the center of São Paulo. The community is the scene of a protagonism dispute between the federal and state governments in the area’s reurbanization projects, but the governor did not use political tone in the post.
“Who matters that people continue to live in precarious conditions in the Mill Favela? To organized crime. For a long time, the favela was used as a drug deposit that supplied Cracolândia and functioned as a crime headquarters in downtown Sao Paulo,” he wrote.
On Tuesday (9) and Wednesday (10), Tarcisio spent the days at the Bandeirantes Palace, the headquarters of the São Paulo government, in the Morumbi neighborhood, where he received secretaries such as Guilherme Derrite (Security), Jorge Lima (Economic Development) and Renato Feder (Education), as well as deputies such as Jorge Wilson, the consumer sheriff (Republicans). There were no interviews or events in the main hall.
Until mid-August, when he began to climb his tone against the Supreme Court, the “silence” of the former president’s trial was the main complaint of the pockets against the governor. After the attacks on September 7, however, Tarcisio was criticized by moderate voices and by the STF ministers themselves, who evaluated the speech in Paulista as “outside the institutional tone” and with the potential to “streamline important bridges.” The radical speech even caught the governor’s allies by surprise.
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This week’s meetings and private meetings contrast with the posture of the previous week, when Tarcisio was in Brasilia for two days to capture the amnesty flag to the convicts on January 8, including former President Bolsonaro. Among the articulations in the federal capital, the governor met with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicans).
Tarcisio’s retreat has been seen as strategic, given the negative repercussion of Sunday’s pronouncement in certain segments.
“In 2022, who gave the victory to Lula were 2% of the so -called Democratic Center. If he wants to win (in 2026), Tarcisio knows that he cannot just depend on the vote of pockets. With the vote of pockets, he would be in the second round, but to beat Lula he would need to present himself a little more moderate,” says scientist Rodrigo Prando, from Presbyterian University Mackenzie.
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The expert also draws attention to the governor’s statements and movements before September 7:
“The speech in Paulista comes after two movements that occurred the previous week. The first is the search for amnesty, when he becomes the object of approval and less resentment of pockets. The other statement, which I consider bad, was what he said did not trust in the newspaper Daily ABC). These two lines culminate with him by taking the foot of the canoe of moderation,” he says.
For a secretary of Tarcisio heard under anonymous, however, the vote of Minister Luiz Fux on Wednesday, who rekindled hopes of pockets, can make the governor of São Paulo “leave the canvas” and return to the ideological fight.
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“After Fux, any discomfort (on the lines of September 7) will be in the background,” predicts the ally.
This week, in addition to the trial of the former president and the other defendants for the coup plot, the STF judges a case of interest to the governor: the civic-military schools. Showcase and one of the main nods for state management pockets, the program was questioned at the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJSP), which last year suspended its implementation in an injunction. STF Minister Gilmar Mendes revoked the injunction and released the initiative. Now, the case goes to the court’s virtual plenary and the ministers decide whether or not Gilmar’s decision maintains.
Sought, the Bandeirantes Palace declined to comment on the report.
