The federal deputy this Thursday (27) attributed the party’s collapse to the polarization between the president (PT) and the former president () and the consequences of the Lava Jato operation, which accused some of the party’s main leaders.
“We were all hit by the tragedy of ideological polarization,” he said. “But it is impossible not to mention the harmful effect of the irresponsible criminalization of political activity that took place in the country a few years ago. I express my solidarity here with my fellow Tucanos and other parties, who, like me, were cowardly and unfairly accused of acts never carried out”, he said.
Aécio resumed the presidency of the PSDB after more than eight years. When he left office that time, in 2017, he was the target of a plea bargain from businessman Joesley Batista, from JBS, and a decision by the (Supreme Federal Court) to remove him from his position as senator.
Aécio left office that time to “prove his innocence”, managed to maintain his mandate as senator and the cases were archived years later, as were almost all investigations resulting from the . The investigations affected other important leaders of the party, such as Marconi Perillo, and (today vice-president of the Republic and ally of the PT).
The new party president also stated that the PSDB made mistakes. “But the biggest one was never having defended with the necessary courage the advances promoted when we governed the country”, said the Minas Gerais native, who went from presidential candidate to deputy during this period.
The party also declined after the operation and Bolsonaro’s arrival in power, with the growth of a new right. It lost all of its governors (of those elected in 2022, two went to the PSD and one to the PP) and almost all of its senators (today there are only three), it elected only 13 federal deputies and will not have, for the second time, a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.
Little for someone who elected 99 federal deputies and seven governors in 1998, the height of the FHC government, in addition to having 16 senators. More importantly, he is threatened with not exceeding the performance clause in 2026, which would leave him without party funds and advertising on TV and radio, practically forced to join another party.
In this Thursday’s event, the words most cited by leaders and representatives of Tucano segments were “restructuring” and “renewal”, in addition to the expectation of representing voters who do not feel represented by the polarization between PT and Bolsonaro – a pole that once belonged to the Tucanos.
Former governor of Goiás Marconi Perillo, who left the presidency of the PSDB this Thursday, thanked those who stayed in the party “while many preferred to leave”. “The PSDB was at a delicate moment. We were going through a phase of internal challenges, of questioning about our role”, he commented. “We did not succumb, as many believed.”
The acronym celebrated the affiliation of two federal deputies elected by Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Queiroz and Luciano Vieira, as a show of recovery. But the departure of part of the current bench is already expected, and many did not even show up to elect the new leadership in an auditorium in Brasília.
The only party president to grace the inauguration was deputy Renata Abreu (SP), who heads Podemos, the acronym that . Negotiations dragged on for months, but ended up being aborted due to the Tucanos’ resistance to giving up command, despite being smaller. “We dated PSDB and Podemos a lot, but the future belongs to God,” she said.
Other parties, such as MDB, PP and PL, were represented by federal deputies. “The party that faced the PT the most was the PSDB, this unites us”, stated the leader of the PL in the Chamber, deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (RJ). “I know you will bring the party to the center, because the center has an important role, but you will never ally with the PT.”
The president of , (-PB), defended the PSDB’s role in national politics and that “the citizen who is at the forefront can once again be the priority of the debate”. “In the Chamber we will always have our doors open for this dialogue, in what really interests our country”, he stated.
