The meeting of the state directorate of gaúcho, which indicated the disembarkation of the state government and an alliance with the for the October dispute, marked the distance between the right and the governor () in Rio Grande do Sul.
With the largest number of members and city halls in the state, the party integrated Leite’s two administrations, but, after the appointment of the directory on the 20th, the expectation is that it will leave the government base soon.
The tendency is for the party to confirm in July, at a convention, its support for federal deputy Luciano Zucco (PL), leader of the opposition in the Chamber, in the race for Palácio Piratini.
Despite the indication of an alliance with the PL, the PP must maintain its candidacy for the state government, and chose the name of state president Covatti Filho, with 109 votes against 8 for deputy Ernani Polo.
Between March and April, a survey will be carried out to analyze the electoral potential, rejection and dispute in different scenarios, in order to identify which candidate is best able to lead the project. The party that does not lead the ticket will nominate the vice-governor vacancy and one of the Senate vacancies.
The articulation includes the possibility of nominating the vice president and a name for the Senate by the right-wing ticket, which currently has as pre-candidates the deputies Sanderson (PL) and Marcel van Hattem (Novo) — the latter being the only name considered guaranteed in the dispute.
The decision was praised by the senator (PL), pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, who defended the formation of a unified right-wing project to “rescue the dignity of our brothers from Rio Grande do Sul, who were abandoned by the left at a time when they needed it most”.
Leite said that the PP has the legitimacy to seek prominence and said he was waiting for the opportunity to meet with Covatti Filho to discuss his departure. The state president of the party said that the party is organizing itself internally to prepare a formal statement and set an agenda to present its position.
Critical of both Lula and Lula, Leite seeks to position himself as an anti-polarization reference.
The state president of the PP said he understands the governor’s position on a centrist path, but does not see this trend among members.
“We are seeing that the election is heading towards a very large polarization, and our base wants the Progressives to have a position. There is no longer any place on the fence, there is no more space within politics,” said Covatti.
The governor of Rio Grande do Sul does not hide that he has national ambitions, but he is competing for the PSD seat with the governor of Paraná, ., and, since last week, with the governor of Goiás, , who joined the party. The trend today is for Leite to run for the Senate.
Currently, the priority is building the candidacy of his successor, vice-governor Gabriel Souza (MDB), who could take office in April if Leite resigns to run.
In the PP directory, the alignment with the Bolsonarist candidacy was evident: the alliance was approved with 107 votes, against only 2 in favor of a possible composition with the MDB. The government’s departure had the support of 91 of the 120 voters.
An internal PP survey indicated that the base —mayors, councilors and local leaders— mostly prefer the construction of a right-wing alliance, without necessarily having the head of the ticket.
“I asked the question: would our base like a competitive alliance or their own candidacy? And 77% would like a competitive alliance,” said Covatti.
It is a change in the stance of a party that, in the last two years, had difficulty in achieving the base’s ambitions in assuming a leading role in the state.
In 2018, the party would launch Luis Carlos Heinze as a candidate for government, but reluctantly gave up due to a national agreement between parties in the center that placed the then senator Ana Amélia Lemos as vice-president, at the time in .
In return, the party allied itself with Eduardo Leite, who was also in the PSDB, and Heinze ended up running for the Senate, getting elected.
Four years later, Heinze managed to run for government but ended up in fifth place, dehydrated by Jair Bolsonaro’s preference for (PL), which received the most votes in the first round and lost to Leite in the second.
Today, Onyx is in the PP, but was not mentioned in the directory as a potential candidate. Heinze has not yet weighed in on political prospects this year.
