The mayor of , (), 56, resigns this Friday (20) from his position to run for state government campaign and presenting the signs of his electoral speech this year.
In the last week in office, with the governor () in the transport and public security sector. At the same time, he adopted it to refer to the death of criminals in confrontation to signal a hard-line policy to Bolsonarista voters, the majority in Rio de Janeiro.
Paes guarantees to maintain support for President Lula, but has sought proximity to names aligned with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), pre-candidate for the Presidency. He handed it over to the former deputy (MDB), aligned with the PT member’s likely opponent.
The mayor claims to have Lula’s approval to make these moves in a state where Lula lost in 2022 in the dispute against former president Jair Bolsonaro. The pre-candidate for government says he does not intend to nationalize the dispute.
Paes is the mayor who commanded the City Palace for the longest time: 13 years and 2 months and 20 days, surpassing his former political godfather, Cesar Maia (12 years). He is also the first to resign from his position since redemocratization.
By leaving office, the mayor fails to comply with what he did during the re-election dispute, in 2024, when he declared that it was his obligation to complete the fourth term he was running for.
He has said that his candidacy for government is a way to contribute even more to the city. Allies claim that the change will not provoke rejection, as, according to internal polls, Paes’ voters want him to run for the Guanabara Palace.
With his departure, the vice-mayor (PSD), 31, takes over, who will be the youngest to hold the position in the city’s history.
Paes’ last week in office was used to signal campaign speeches until October.
In public security, the mayor has shown support for police operations, distancing himself from criticism made by President Lula himself of actions such as last year in Complexo do Alemão, when 122 people died, including five police officers.
This Thursday morning (19), when commenting on the police operation in Morro dos Prazeres, in Santa Teresa, the mayor defended the incursions in Bolsonarist terms, but criticized Castro for not having a plan to occupy areas dominated by organized crime.
“The time has come to end the traditional hypocrisy in Rio: if a delinquent threatens the life of a State agent or a citizen, only the constituted State has the duty and the right to neutralize this delinquent. Let us stop this false asymmetry of treating police officers the way delinquents should be treated”, he wrote on his social networks.
The term “neutralize” is used as a euphemism in Bolsonaro circles to refer to the death of criminals in confrontation.
One day earlier, on Wednesday (18), the mayor used the term for the first time on his networks when criticizing the fact that Complexo do Alemão continued to be used as the “headquarters” of the Red Command, even after Operation Containment.
“Regain the authority and monopoly of the State Force. You have to stay until you have control and bring peace to those who live there! If you have to neutralize another 200, let it be done but restore order! There’s no point in going and leaving! Just remember: this Cláudio Castro (PL) government has been there for 8 years! All people with gogó and brave talk but without effective action! That’s going to change!”, he wrote.
On Monday (16), the clash was in the transport sector, when the city council began operating the so-called BRT Metropolitano, which provides a connection between municipalities in Baixada Fluminense and the network of road corridors in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
The first line would connect Mesquita to the Pedro Fernandes Terminal with the promise of reducing time and costs for passengers. Detro (State Department of Road Transport), however, stated that the municipality was invading the state’s responsibility and banned the circulation of buses. A bus was towed and the municipal secretary of Transport of Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Arraes, was threatened with arrest if he insisted on the service.
“Hello people of Baixada Fluminense, especially Mesquita. The Cláudio Castro government just seized our BRT Metropolitano bus that will serve the residents of Baixada for half the time and half the price! What disrespectful people. And there’s more: they are defending the bus mafia and the tragedy that these intercity buses are. They don’t do it and they don’t let it do it!”, wrote Paes.
At the end of the day, there was an agreement to start operating the Mesquita line to the terminal.
