The former governor of Minas Gerais (Novo) compared the strikes at federal universities and (in São Paulo) to an act of politicking.
The other three main presidential candidates, (PT), the senator () and (), former governor of Goiás, did not respond to the report on how they see the mobilization.
Started in February, the strike by universities and federal institutes affects more than 50 institutions, which demand compliance with agreements signed in a previous movement, from 2024.
The servers ask, for example, for the implementation of a 30-hour week and a RSC (Recognition of Knowledge and Skills).
The federal government has already stated that the 2024 agreements were being implemented gradually, with the publication, at the end of March, of the standard that provides for the RSC in the career plan of technical-administrative positions in education.
At USP, students are asking for an increase in the value of scholarships and improvements to the university restaurant, among other demands. Employees demanded an adjustment in salaries and the full recovery of losses due to inflation.
In , the institution’s employees accepted an agreement to end the demonstration. Students, however, .
Zema stated that the “strike shows that public universities are taken over by a radical minority that is harming the future of young people who want to study and the lives of teachers who want to work.”
According to the Minas Gerais presidential candidate, the public university is a place for those who want to learn, “not a platform where small groups put politics above study and scientific production”.
His management in Minas was the target of criticism from the category (University of the State of Minas Gerais) for the Union. The proposal, which did not go ahead, was part of the attempt to renegotiate the state’s debts with the federal government.
A Sheet questioned President Lula’s position through the PT, which transferred responsibility for the response to Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication), which, in turn, indicated that the campaign demand was with the party.
Although he did not respond to the question, Lula has already demonstrated his opposition to previous mobilizations in education. During the 2024 strike at federal universities, the PT member said he is “not afraid of the rector”.
At the time, he also compared the management of education in his government with that of (PL), saying that the former president “never received a rector in his life”. The teachers, who were asking for salary adjustments and restoration of the institutions’ budget, stopped their activities.
Flávio Bolsonaro also did not respond to the report. When he was a state deputy, he was the author of a bill to create the Escola sem Partido program in the Rio de Janeiro education system, which provided, among other points, for the prohibition of “the practice of political and ideological indoctrination in the classroom, as well as the dissemination, in mandatory discipline, of content that may be in conflict with the religious or moral convictions of students or their parents”.
Another candidate on the right, faced a clash with the civil servant category during his mandate in Goiás. In 2025, he received a favorable court decision to suspend a strike at UEG (State University of Goiás) motivated by improvements in his career plan.
