The PT decided to support the re-election of the president of the City Council of , Ricardo Teixeira (), after the party’s bench of councilors this Wednesday (3) with the mayor (MDB).
The decision was taken by the municipal executive of the acronym this Thursday (4). Teixeira faces opposition from his own party in his quest for another term, but is supported by the mayor.
The dispute between Teixeira and Rubinho Nunes, candidate of União Brasil, has as its backdrop a fight between Nunes and Milton Leite, main leader of União Brasil in the capital
Initially, half of the bench of eight PT councilors was not convinced in supporting Teixeira, and the other had already joined the campaign of the emedebista, who is a critic of the party.
Given the agreement with Teixeira and Nunes, the party must maintain command of the Chamber’s first secretariat, which also guarantees associated positions for the party. Upset, the mayor reportedly said at the meeting that if the party was not interested in maintaining this agreement by voting for Teixeira, he could offer the secretariat to Podemos.
The group already willing to vote for Teixeira, Nunes’ candidate, was made up of João Ananias, Jair Tatto, Alessandro Guedes and Senival Moura. In a heated moment of the conversation on Wednesday, according to reports from members of the opposition and the situation who followed the conversation, the mayor said that he helped this group in their electoral campaigns last year with amendments, deliveries and joint events, so he was counting on their retribution now.
The other group was formed by Luna Zarattini, leader of the bench, Hélio Rodrigues, president of the municipal directory, Nabil Bonduki and Dheison Silva. At the meeting, they demanded from Nunes a better relationship with the councilors next year and criticized maneuvers by the government base to ask for it in 2025, for example.
They also asked for support for Bonduki to assume the presidency of a committee in the Chamber that deals with urbanism, a topic that is his specialty.
The mayor got upset and mentioned that as rapporteur of the Municipal Theater CPI in 2016, he did not summon Bonduki to give a statement, which he should recognize as a positive gesture now. The comment was seen as inappropriate by PT members.
The launch of the candidacy of Rubinho Nunes, nominated by União Brasil to assume the presidency of the Chamber, helped to push the PT towards Teixeira’s side, due to the councilor’s history of emphatic anti-PTism.
In a note from the municipal executive, the PT said that “the right was divided” between the candidacies of Teixeira and Rubinho, and that the second gained fame by persecuting Father Julio Lancellotti and with proposals to fine donations of lunch boxes and a CPI dos Pancadões. Therefore, they decided to support Teixeira.
The note also states that the current president has committed to respecting the PT bench in the composition of commissions, in CPI proposals and in creating a space for minority leadership.
Milton Leite, leader of União Brasil, defends the election of Rubinho Nunes and demands the implementation of the agreement reached with the mayor last year according to which the party would choose the president of the municipal Legislature for four years. In return, the party supported Nunes in his re-election.
Leite also presses for compliance with the agreement signed by União councilors last year, including by Teixeira himself, that the members of the party’s bench would take turns in command of the Chamber on a rotating basis.
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