The senator (-RJ) threatens to support the senator (-PR) in the election for the Government of Paraná if Governor Jr. (PSD) decides. Membership of Moro and the PL is on the table, as he wants to make his candidacy for his current party viable.
The negotiation could implode the Paraná PL agreement with Ratinho Jr, and both agreed to talk after Carnival to try to reach a compromise. The governor went on vacation on Tuesday (10) and is only expected to return to the country on February 25th. The son of former president Jair Bolsonaro was on an international itinerary to meet right-wing leaders in other countries.
Before Flávio’s presidential candidacy, the PL agreed that it would support the candidate chosen by Ratinho Jr. for his succession in exchange for space for federal deputy Filipe Barros to run for . Today the most popular candidate is the Secretary of Cities, Guto Silva (PSD), but the president of the Legislative Assembly, Alexandre Curi (PSD), and the former mayor of Curitiba Rafael Greca (PSD) are also competing for the position.
Flávio has worked to build his own platforms in all states and wants to avoid supporting a candidate who rivals him nationally. That’s why, according to three interlocutors, he started talking to Moro about the possibility of supporting his candidacy for government, as a way of weakening Ratinho Jr. and making him give up the .
The governor has not yet decided whether he will run for President or Senate. Allies say he has fluctuated his position in private conversations. Sometimes he assesses that there will be no space because of the polarization between Bolsonaro and the president (PT), sometimes about the possibility of going to the second round and winning because of the lower rejection among voters of his name.
Also weighing on the decision, according to three allies, is pressure from his father, TV presenter and businessman Carlos Massa, known as Ratinho, for fear that this will lead to television and radio concessions across the country.
Another concern is the maintenance of your group in command of Paraná. With a positive rating of more than 80%, Ratinho plans to succeed, but Moro has appeared at the top of polls of voting intentions, driven by the popularity gained during his time as a judge in Operation Lava Jato.
Paraná is a state with a more right-wing electorate, and the support of the Bolsonaro family carries weight. In the Curitiba election in 2024, journalist Cristina Graeml ran for the lower PMB and threatened after signs of endorsement by the former president.
Bolsonaro’s support for Moro, in the view of the governor’s allies, is a risk and could be decisive in the election. Furthermore, membership in the PL – an acronym with more advertising time on TV and radio and a larger share of the electoral fund – would change the scenario.
In the current party, União Brasil, Moro encounters difficulties. He won local command after months of pressure from the president of the Senate, (União Brasil-AP), but at least two federal deputies (Felipe Francischini and Nelson Padovani) are leaving to remain in the governor’s group.
Moro still depends on the PP, the acronym that will command the federation with União Brasil in Paraná and has already publicly stated that he does not wish to support it. The state president of the PP, deputy Ricardo Barros (PR), . “Today, what is defined is that Moro will not be our candidate”, he says.
Barros states that the federation is free to negotiate with Ratinho Jr, but that it can also launch its own candidate – former governor Cida Borghetti, former mayor of Londrina Marcelo Belinati or Greca, if he does not have space in the governor’s group and decides to change parties. “We have alternatives that better dialogue with politics,” he declared.
Questioned by SheetMoro did not comment on the conversations with the PL, but insisted in a statement that he intends to run for the current party. “Senator Sergio Moro remains in União Brasil, the party that guaranteed his candidacy for the government of Paraná in 2026. Differences with PP will be resolved through dialogue”, he responded through his advisor.
PP politicians claim that the change to the PL may not occur because the climate is more favorable to Moro within the federation. An ally of the party president, senator Ciro Nogueira (PI), says that he is more likely to defend this candidacy as he understands that this will increase the number of federal deputies and senators in the group. This permanence could occur even with Flávio’s support.
The senator has until April 4 to decide which party he will be affiliated with to run, the deadline for those who will contest the 2026 election.
