Senator Cleitinho Azevedo (-MG) will be a candidate for the Government of Minas Gerais, said the president of the Republicans, in an interview with Sheet. The senator has already declared support for (), but the reciprocal depends on the plans of the federal deputy (PL-MG), assesses the leader.
“The PL is divided there. It has not been defined. They say that it is Nikolas who will decide. And he is much more aligned with Matheus [Simões]the current vice.”
Simões, who is from , will take over the government in March, after the departure of the current governor, (Novo), who is aiming for the Presidency election.
For Pereira, the federal deputy is making a “political calculation” that includes his own plans for 2030. As Simões will be governor from April, he will run for re-election in October and will not be able to run again in four years. This will open up space for other applications.
Cleitinho, on the other hand, could stay in government for eight years, until 2034. This, in the assessment of the president of the Republicans, could affect Nikolas’ plans.
“Matheus will no longer be able to be a candidate if he is governor, and then the vacancy opens for him, because he wants to be governor of Minas. Whereas, if it were Cleitinho, he would have the right to re-election, so he [Nikolas] wait eight years”, he said in the interview, on Wednesday (25).
The candidacy of Simões, who will support Zema in the presidential race, could impact Flávio Bolsonaro’s vote in Minas, as the candidate who runs the state machine would be campaigning for an opponent.
indicate that the PL is skeptical of Simões’ candidacy. Next to the name of MG’s current deputy there is the remark “pull me down”.
Cleitinho had paused negotiations on his candidacy at the beginning of February, after his brother was diagnosed with leukemia, but he has already told allies that he will be a candidate. Flávio and Cleitinho spoke before Carnival about the dispute in Minas, but there was no definition of support. The two are expected to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the topic.
but ruled out running for governor this year. The deputy will seek re-election to the Chamber of Deputies. Nikolas was the country’s most voted candidate in the 2022 elections.
In Nikolas he said that there needed to be unity and work hard to elect Flávio.
to guarantee a platform in the state. The president met with the senator two weeks ago and reaffirmed that he would be the only option in the state, but Pacheco did not comment.
Minas Gerais is considered a key state in the elections. Since redemocratization, they have also triumphed in the Minas Gerais polls: from Fernando Collor (1989) to Jair Bolsonaro (2018), passing through Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1994 and 1998), (2002 and 2006) and Dilma Rousseff (2010 and 2014).
In 2022, Lula won in Minas with a narrow margin, just 0.4 percentage points difference with Jair Bolsonaro. The president obtained 50.2% of the votes in the state, while Bolsonaro registered 49.8%.
