The mayor of , (), stated this Monday (19) that he will resign from his position.
It is the first time that Paes has publicly confirmed his candidacy, which he has been working on since last year. The decision contradicts the fact that he would complete his fourth term as head of the municipality.
Paes confirmed that he is a pre-candidate after meeting with the secretariat this Monday, at the city hall. He stated that the tendency is to formalize the exit by Carnival.
“I still have a deadline to disengage. I don’t intend to do it so far in advance, but the time is coming,” he said. “Political conversations will consume a little more of my time in the next 45, 40 days until Carnival.”
Paes stated that he will support President Lula’s (PT) candidacy for re-election, despite Ratinho Júnior, his PSD supporter. In recent meetings with the party president, Gilberto Kassab, Ratinho made himself available for the presidential race.
“My decision is to support President Lula’s candidacy for President of the Republic, there was never any doubt about that.”
In the first speech in which he openly announced that he is a pre-candidate, Paes mentioned public safety, a topic that also permeates his municipal management. Facing difficulties even with allies in the Rio Chamber, Paes approved in 2025 the creation of a , which is in training.
“The issue of security has a solution, but it is not by handing over security projects to political groups, and it is not in a tripartite command of the issue, without the firm presence of the governor”, stated Paes, in an indirect criticism of Cláudio Castro (PL), a move he had already made during the 2024 municipal elections.
The tripartite command mentioned by Paes is the coexistence of the secretariats of the Military Police, Civil Police and Public Security in the Castro government.
“Public security is not a topic that can be discussed between bullies. We have seen governors making irresponsible statements, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to shoot myself in the head’, and in the end they turned out to be more tchuchucas than bullies”, he said, in reference to the speech of former governor Wilson Witzel.
On Saturday (17), the mayor had already indicated that he was a pre-candidate during an agenda in the municipality of Santo Antonio de Pádua, in the northwest of Rio de Janeiro. In a relaxed tone, Paes asked the city’s mayor, Paulinho da Refrigeração (MDB), for support.
It will be Paes’ third candidacy for the Rio de Janeiro government. He ran in 2006 for the PSDB, in the election that elected Sérgio Cabral, then in the PMDB, and returned to the contest in 2018, for the DEM, when he was defeated in the second round by Witzel (then in the PSC).
Last week, Paes informed allies that he will leave on March 20th. He also met with President Lula to reaffirm support for his re-election bid, despite recent rifts in the relationship with the PT.
The movement was a consolidation of what was already happening behind the scenes, in which Paes was already speaking openly about his departure.
The promise that he would complete his term was made during the elections and reaffirmed at different times throughout 2025.
In the municipal campaign, he classified it as one for four years. He promised for Portela, Vasco and King Momo. The commitment was renewed in the first year of his term, when he was even jokingly called by the national president of the PSD, .
In August, he made a mistake when he said that vice Eduardo Cavaliere would take away his “mark of youngest mayor in the history of Rio de Janeiro”. The successor is 31 years old and Paes took up his first term at 38.
Next, Paes sought to remove the connotation of farewell from his speech. He argued that he was referring to the fact that the deputy would take office days later due to an international trip already planned. However, Cavaliere had already been interim mayor on other similar occasions, and there was no originality as described in the flawed act.
The mayor’s allies say they believe that there will be no wear and tear on the mayor. They claim that internal surveys indicate the desire of the mayor’s electorate for him to run for government, which is experiencing a financial and public security crisis.
Paes intensified Cavaliere’s schedule from the second half of 2025, in a plan, according to allies, to get him used to the rites of the position. Some of the secretaries started reporting to both.
“When I chose Cavaliere as vice-president, I wanted someone who, in fact, had an executive profile, capable of achieving things,” said the mayor.
