After a meeting held in Rio, the names chosen to represent presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in the governor’s election were called for a conversation with him in Brasília this Tuesday afternoon. The state secretary of Cities, Douglas Ruas (PL), tends to be presented as a pre-candidate for the Guanabara Palace, and the former mayor of Nova Iguaçu Rogério Lisboa (PP) would be the vice-president.
Initially, Flávio will have a conversation with governor Cláudio Castro (PL) and the state president of the party, federal deputy Altineu Côrtes, in order to define the terms of the electoral agreement. Afterwards, the other staff involved will be called, and it is expected that an announcement of the alliance will be made today. In recent days, the idea in the PL was in fact for the ticket to be announced with the governor and vice president together.
The choice of Douglas Ruas goes against what Castro has been advocating lately: placing his Civil House Secretary, Nicola Miccione, to compete for the buffer mandate that will be at stake in the indirect election if the governor leaves office by April in order to run for the Senate. In this scenario, Miccione would not run for re-election in October, and the Civil Police Secretary, Felipe Curi, would be a candidate for the Guanabara Palace in the direct election.
Ruas has expressed in recent months that he would like to be in the chair, via indirect voting, when it comes time to face the official campaign, in which he will have Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) as his main opponent. Thus, I would compete with the machine in hand. Flávio Bolsonaro also sees this configuration as more advantageous for his platform.
Although today’s meeting is more focused on the October election than the indirect one, there are still doubts about Miccione’s viability from now on, which would depend on Ruas accepting to be the candidate without being in office at the beginning of the campaign.
Vice was courted by Paes
Rogério Lisboa was one of the favorites to be Paes’ vice-president, but the difficulty the mayor encountered in securing the support of the PP led him to seek out the MDB and agree a partnership with the Emedebista state president, Washington Reis, who nominated his sister Jane Reis for the post. The carioca’s gesture made the other side of the dispute come out of the state of lethargy in which it found itself.
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The meeting that took place in Rio in preparation for going to Brasília included Castro, Altineu and members of the PP and União Brasil. In addition to Lisbon, there were the state president of the PP, deputy Dr. Luizinho; the national president of the Union, Antonio Rueda; and the mayor of Belford Roxo, Márcio Canella.
In Rio’s politics, the reading is that the arrangements could still change between now and the campaign, as Paes tends to make new moves to try to attract the PP and the Union. Today, however, his agreement with the MDB has taken these parties — which have robust electoral advertising time on TV and radio, as well as capillarity in the state — to the side of Bolsonarism.
