The president of , Gilberto Kassab, signaled to allies that he should announce the name of the governor next week. as the party’s pre-candidate for President. The information was confirmed by three members of the party’s leadership who point to him as the favorite to win the internal dispute. Still, they avoid making the choice for fear that final conversations will change the outcome.
The idea of the party leadership and governors is to speed up the dissemination of the name so that the chosen one can structure his campaign and present himself to the country, as the senator (PL-RJ) than was expected in the acronym.
Members of the PSD leadership imagined that the transfer of votes from the former president (PL) to his eldest son would take longer, and that is why they had scheduled the choice of the candidate for president for April, after the party window for whoever is a candidate to define their party – which ends on the 4th. However, in the polls, he got closer to the president (PT) in the first round and is already tied with the PT member in the second round.
Party leaders say that Ratinho became the favorite within the PSD for a few reasons: because he has been a member for longer, appears better in polls and is well accepted among lower-income voters because of his father, the TV presenter and businessman Ratinho. It would also be a name with low rejection, in addition to being debated for months among members.
In an interview with Santa Catarina newspapers, the state president of the party and member of the PSD political council, Jorge Bornhausen, stated that he met with and heard that the decision has already been made.
“It was agreed that on March 25th the name of Ratinho Júnior will be announced. I am part of the selection committee. Evidently, respecting the other two great governors, I opted for Ratinho Júnior, who is center-right like me. This is the path that the electorate wants”, declared Bornhausen.
A Sheet He reached out to him and Kassab for comment, but received no response until the publication of this report.
Ratinho competes with two other governors, (Rio Grande do Sul) and (Goiás), for the pre-candidacy for the Presidency. Allies claim that they sought out Kassab to question him about the choice and heard that the hammer has not yet been decided and that the decision will take place by the end of the month.
Kassab has been talking to the three to ensure they resign from local government by April 4 and run for office in October. The strategy is for those passed over for the Presidency to run for the Senate or as vice-president, on a pure PSDB ticket.
According to party leaders and parliamentarians, the preference was always for Ratinho, but it depended on his own decision to run. Flávio is still trying to remove him, by threatening to break the agreement in Paraná, where the PL would support the successor chosen by the governor in exchange for the Senate seat.
With Ratinho’s presidential candidacy, the PL states that it will have senator Sergio Moro () as a candidate for the Government of Paraná. This could happen by the PL itself or by União Brasil, if Moro manages to convince the party federation with the PP to launch him as a candidate. Flávio’s campaign will have a meeting with both parties this week.
Despite appearing better than his internal competitors in the polls, Ratinho is well behind Lula and Flávio in the first round. The PL tries to convince him to ally with Flávio, with the possibility of being vice-president, but in the PSD the discourse is that there is room for growth until October and that an alliance with the right or the left would split the party in the states.
The most recent survey shows Ratinho with 7% of voting intentions in the first round, in the stimulated scenario (when the candidates are presented). Lula would have 38% and Flávio, 32%. The governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), would have 4%, followed by Renan Santos (Missão), with 3%, and Aldo Rebelo (DC), with 2%. Another 11% say they would vote blank or null and 3% say they are undecided.
Datafolha interviewed 2,004 voters in 137 municipalities from Tuesday (3) to Thursday (5). With a margin of error of plus or minus two points, the survey is registered with the Electoral Court under code BR-03715/2026.
