After two weeks of vacation with his family, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), returned to work yesterday to begin the last year of this term. With an eye on four more years at the helm of Palácio dos Bandeirantes — despite his name not being completely ruled out for the presidential race — he has until April to hold inaugurations across the state. Afterwards, the launches can be carried out, but without your presence. Meanwhile, the governor has to deal with political and party issues that involve defining a vice-president for his ticket and demanding more emphatic support for Flávio Bolsonaro’s pre-candidacy for Planalto.
Still eyeing a brand for management, Tarcísio launched the slogan “Courage to do the (im)possible is São Paulo in the right direction” at the end of last year. On that occasion, he delivered 26 kilometers of the Rodoanel Norte, whose work, which began 28 years ago, should finally be completed by the end of this year. He also intends to sign the contract for the Santos-Guarujá tunnel, the target of a dispute for protagonism with the Lula government, the state’s partner in the project.
Other deliveries intended by Tarcísio, as part of the Metro Line 6-Orange and the work on the Line 17-Gold Monorail (promised for the 2014 World Cup), both also initiated in past administrations, should yield images that will be used in his electoral programs. The same should happen with the auction of the administrative center, in Campos Elísios, initially scheduled to take place at the end of 2025, but which was postponed for this first semester.
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Between the launch of works and preparation for the campaign, the governor is evaluating whether to keep his vice-president Felício Ramuth from Gilberto Kassab’s PSD — also considered for the post — or whether to give in to the advances of Valdemar Costa Neto’s PL interested in the vacancy.
In this case, the party’s nominee would be the president of Alesp, André do Prado. The PL’s claim is that the party has the largest state bench and helped the governor approve important projects for the government, such as the privatization of Sabesp.
In the last two weeks, with the key to the state in his hands, Ramuth tried to demarcate territory. He promoted public housing delivery events, gave interviews and controversial statements. In one of them, on the 5th, he called the PT a “narco-affective” party, when commenting on the United States operation that captured the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in Caracas.
In response, the PT said it would sue Tarcísio’s deputy.
The Progressive Party (PP), which has Guilherme Derrite as one of its main names, has shown dissatisfaction with the governor and has been making public demands for an alleged lack of support for the pre-candidacy for the Senate of the former Secretary of Security, who has been out of office for just over a month.
In a note released in the last week of December, the PP’s São Paulo directory states that there is a “growing dissatisfaction among party mayors” with the state administration, and already mentions names that are being evaluated internally as possible candidates for the party.
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One of them is Filipe Sabará, who was once secretary in the municipal and state administrations of João Doria, was president of the São Paulo Social Fund in the first 18 months of the Tarcísio government and is currently helping Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) in his approach to businesspeople from Faria Lima. Another name put forward by the PP is federal deputy Ricardo Salles, who is currently in Novo. Today, the PP has 54 mayors in the state of São Paulo.
Reasons for dissatisfaction
But Tarcísio’s surroundings minimize the chances of this happening. A source states that the PP would “hardly” oppose the governor, mainly because Derrite has his support and has not been endorsing his party’s criticisms of Tarcísio.
Some of the reasons for dissatisfaction would be the delay in releasing resources to city halls and the PP’s loss of space in the government. União Brasil, which is part of the federation with the PP, has already guaranteed that it will support the governor.
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Tarcísio’s support for Flávio Bolsonaro’s national endeavor is another challenge. As O GLOBO showed last week, a month after the announcement of Flávio’s pre-campaign, although the governor has said more than once that he will support him, allies say he will need to be more incisive.
“It will be very strange, not to say bizarre, if Tarcísio doesn’t get involved in Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign. He’s an intelligent person, he knows he has the most to lose if he doesn’t do that. Therefore, I believe he should get into the campaign as soon as possible. He’s on vacation, refreshing his head, and when he returns he should do so,” said Filipe Sabará at the time, who should schedule a new round of meetings between São Paulo businessmen and Flávio for this week.
