The president stopped participating, on Monday (4), in the membership dinner offered by the , despite the date having been defined to accommodate the Planalto Palace’s agenda.
The justification given was that, due to a condition, the PT member should avoid situations in which he could sweat excessively. But his absence was pointed out by allies as a public expression of the reserved criticism that Lula has made of the party he helped found.
This was the second time that Lula missed a party event in less than two weeks. On April 26, the president did not participate in the closing of the PT congress either. Only sent one.
“We have to show very clearly, but a serious proposal, that is something feasible, that we can execute. Because otherwise we keep promising and the guy asks ‘hey, why didn’t you do it?'”, he said in the recording.
On Monday night, Lula was not the only one absent. Only three government ministers attended the PT celebration.
In his conversations, the president repeats that PT members have to do their part for a tough election. According to reports, Lula complains about the party’s lack of combativeness, increasingly focused on discussions such as candidate quotas in the party fund.
Lula resents more energetic action by PT members on the networks and in the streets. He went so far as to demand details of the communication strategy put together by the PT. This discomfort reflects an accumulation of disagreements between the president and members of the party leadership.
Last year, Lula was challenged by a wing opposed to the election of the current party president, Edinho Silva. In March last year, due to the risk of Edinho’s defeat in the party election.
Although he has a person he trusts in Edinho, and despite the choice of a communications secretary, Éden Valadares, aligned with the minister (Secom), Lula does not maintain a relationship with all the members of the so-called party machine.
For the party congress, Lula closely followed the writing of the party’s manifesto. He even suggested the exclusion of controversial proposals, such as financial system reforms.
Under the president’s guidance, the PT leadership decided to remove controversial topics from the party meeting’s agenda that could increase wear and tear on the eve of the campaign. But, in addition to the manifesto, two other texts were prepared, which also contradicted Lula — a defender of the idea of publishing just one essay.
None of the documents have been published so far.
In his conversations, Lula also complains about a lack of combativeness on the part of government and PT leaders in Congress. According to interlocutors, Lula states that the profile of the PT members who occupy these positions is too soft for the upcoming electoral dispute.
In this sense, the replacement of government leaders in Congress is not ruled out, especially after the rejection in the Senate of the nomination of the head of the (Advocacy General of the Union), to fill a vacancy in the (Supreme Federal Court).
