The Novo party is betting on dissent from the PL to improve its performance in next year’s elections. After registering a drop in the number of representatives in recent electoral cycles, the party targets those dissatisfied with former president Jair Bolsonaro’s party in order to have competitive candidacies for Congress in the South and Southeast regions.
In Santa Catarina, Novo awaits the membership of deputy Caroline de Toni due to the split in the local PL, which occurred in the wake of Rio councilor Carlos Bolsonaro’s decision to run for the Senate for that state. The parliamentarian has signaled to allies that she is “forced” to leave the PL due to lack of space on the majority ticket.
The change from PL to Novo was already made by congressman and former Olympic athlete Luiz Lima (RJ) in April this year. The movement was described by him as a “return home”, after having internal differences over the direction followed by the old party.
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— At the time, I spoke with President Jair Bolsonaro and I remain very grateful to him for electing me deputy in 2022, but now I am pleased to be in Novo because of the coherence that the party maintains as an opposition to the Lula government — said the parliamentarian, who will run for re-election.
Return
Last year, the same movement was made by deputy Ricardo Salles (SP), who returned to Novo four years after being expelled for taking command of the Ministry of the Environment during the Bolsonaro administration.
What motivated PL’s departure was having been passed over in the race for mayor of São Paulo in 2024. That year the party supported the re-election of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB).
Salles announced his return to Novo with the aim of running for the Senate in 2026. He is, however, considering running for governor if Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) chooses to run for President.
Novo saw its bench in the Chamber reduced from eight deputies to three between 2018 and 2022. The party lost access to TV advertising time and party funds for not having reached the barrier clause.
Next year, the cutoff line will be to elect at least 13 federal deputies distributed across a third of the states, or obtain 2.5% of the valid votes for the Chamber, spread across a third or more of the federation units, with a minimum of 1.5% of the valid votes in each one.
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In the opposite direction, the Mission party, which received approval from the Superior Electoral Court last week to be formalized, wants to distance itself from names close to Bolsonaro.
— These people want to express their Bolsonarism in another party, and they will not be able to do that in our party. We are neither Lula nor Bolsonaro. Here, they would have to build a new project within the right-wing camp,” said the party president, Renan Santos.
Also challenged by the barrier clause, Missão will bet on the affiliation of members of the Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL), such as deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP) and São Paulo councilors Guto Silva (PSD) and Amanda Vettorazo (União).
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