Part of the PSD leadership says that the party’s pre-candidate for president, the governor of Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado, adopts a necessary strategy by positioning himself to the right and making nods to Bolsonarism, as in the promise of a broad amnesty to former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The understanding of this group is that Caiado can benefit from following this path, as this wing of the party sees the possibility of the PL pre-candidate for President, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), becoming unviable throughout the electoral campaign.
Within this scenario, the prediction is that Caiado will already be positioned as a kind of “plan B” for right-wing voters.
Even among party members far from the right and closer to the center, even if they do not agree and criticize the gestures made towards Bolsonarism, there are those who say they understand the movement of the governor of Goiás.
— It depends on the steps that come next. That’s what you have to do to inherit these voters if Flávio doesn’t resist his own story, but it doesn’t mean I agree — says former minister Andrea Matarazzo, who is part of the group of close advisors to the president of the PSD, Gilberto Kassab, and who influenced the choice of the presidential candidate.
Flávio is currently competing for the lead in voting intention polls with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but his opponents are betting that problems involving his name, such as suspicions of cracks when he was a state deputy, even though the investigations were closed without holding the senator accountable, could affect his image.
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There is also a bet that an internal dispute for influence within Bolsonarism could harm the PL campaign.
Caiado’s more combative and better positioned profile in relation to the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, who was the PSD’s other presidential alternative, also weighed in on the definition of who will represent the PSD at the polls.
—“Pacification” and “temporization” with each crisis is what led us to the tragedy we are experiencing. Two convicted individuals (Lula and Jair Bolsonaro), one for attempted coup d’état and the other for corruption, define the 2026 election — said Matarazzo.
In his first speech as a pre-candidate for President, Caiado made a point of criticizing polarization, but, at the same time, made a clear nod to former president Jair Bolsonaro.
— Brazil can no longer bear to live in a situation that has been constant in recent years. Polarization is not a feature of national politics. It is supported by a political project, by those who really benefit from it. Can it be deactivated? Yes you can. By someone who is not part of it. That’s what I intend to do when I become President,” he declared.
— My objective is to pacify Brazil by amnestying everyone, including the former president, showing that from then on I will take care of people — he also said.
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The PSD pre-candidate for governor of Santa Catarina, João Rodrigues, praised Caiado’s speech and reinforced the party’s strategy of trying to present him as an option for right-wing voters.
— Above all, Caiado is a root rightist, he is the first of the Mohicans, he is the best rated governor in Brazil, I think we have now found the way to have a pre-candidacy with consistency, knowledge, clarity and balance. With balance even when positioned on the right.
Even so, the situation in Santa Catarina indicates the difficulties that Caiado will face. João Rodrigues will face governor Jorginho Mello (PL) at the polls, but said that he will still give a platform to Flávio Bolsonaro in the state, which means that the PL pre-candidate will have two gubernatorial candidates supporting him, while Caiado will have to share the support of one.
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In other places the situation is worse and Caiado will not have a platform in almost any state in the Northeast, since the majority of the PSD supports Lula there. One of the few signs of alliance he has in the region is even from a PSD opponent, the pre-candidate for governor of Bahia for União Brasil, ACM Neto.
