Previously ‘Lulista’, SC had a Bolsonarist turn with weakened clans and PT’s retreat

Led by a PT councilor, the celebration of the first “Democracy Day” in Balneário Camboriú, on the 3rd, filled the City Council with speeches critical of the 1964 military dictatorship — a regime praised on other occasions by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who garnered almost 75% of the votes in the city in 2022. Bolsonaro’s son, also councilor Jair Renan, record holder for voting in the city municipality in 2024, was the only one to oppose the commemorative date.

The specific setback of Bolsonaroism in this episode was a kind of exception that, until now, confirms the rule in Santa Catarina: in recent years, stumbles by the PT and traditional clans paved the way for the state’s shift to the right, of which Bolsonaro seeks to remain the main beneficiary in 2026.

Since 2018, traditional surnames in Santa Catarina politics, such as the Bornhausen, the Bauer and the Amin, have been losing space to names such as governor Jorginho Mello (PL) and senator Jorge Seif (PL), whose rises occurred thanks to Bolsonaro’s support. In 2022, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) scored just 30% in the state in the second round.

It was a performance similar to that of Fernando Haddad four years earlier, and very far from the 64% that the same Lula had among the people of Santa Catarina in 2002.

Political leaders in Santa Catarina see different reasons for the fall of the PT over the last 20 years, but they converge on the conclusion that this meltdown contributed to generating a vacuum filled by Bolsonaro.

— Santa Catarina is a state of small communities whose leaders were strong, but without dependence on social programs. After Lava-Jato, there was a general disappointment with politics, and Lula personified this — explains congresswoman Paulinha (Podemos-SC), former mayor of Bombinhas, where the PT member was not the most voted even in the “Lula wave” of 2002.

Councilor Eduardo Zanatta (PT), from the almost neighboring Balneário Camboriú, adds:

— This also stems from errors in the PT organization itself here in the state. We are rebuilding ourselves to put the party back at the center of politics in the municipalities.

Zanatta, who even got support from PL councilors to create “Democracy Day” in the city, considers that the PT “isolated itself” after its excellent performance in 2002. At the time, Lula’s party did not want to form the base of the then governor Luiz Henrique da Silveira (MDB), who had supported the PT member in the second round against José Serra (PSDB). In the following election, Luiz Henrique allied himself with parties opposing Lula, such as PSDB and DEM (currently União Brasil), and the PT’s performance plummeted.

That year, in 2006, the Lula government invested in the expansion of social policies, especially Bolsa Família, to reverse the PT member’s drop in popularity due to the monthly allowance. Researchers estimate that the PT took root in the poorest electorate, subverting the image of a party associated with the urban middle class.

In Santa Catarina — a state with the lowest proportion of Bolsa Família beneficiaries across the country, according to data from the federal government — the opposite scenario occurred. Lula, who until then had had good performances against right-wing opponents, suffered a major defeat in 2006, against Geraldo Alckmin, who was still a tucano. And the PT, which had been winning mayors in relevant electoral colleges, such as Chapecó, Joinville and Blumenau, was no longer able to govern the main cities in Santa Catarina.

— Candidates or representatives who increase taxes and do not take care of inflation will obviously have a negative result. The PT had many years in the federal government and Santa Catarina saw no improvements — says the mayor of Joinville, Adriano Silva (Novo), who will be a candidate for vice-governor on Jorginho Mello’s re-election ticket.

Wave of renewal

Former director of the Catarinense Pharma group, Adriano represents the fourth generation of the Bornschein family that operates in the pharmaceutical industry in Joinville. The parents and grandparents maintained a good relationship with several former mayors, such as the emedebista Luiz Henrique da Silveira, who left the city to be elected governor in 2002. The unprecedented arrival of the Bornscheins to the municipal Executive in 2020, however, was a sign of the sweep that has hit traditional Santa Catarina politics in the last decade.

Two years earlier, the then federal deputy Jorginho Mello had surprised even the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, with an unlikely surge that elected him to the Senate with almost the same vote as the veteran Esperidião Amin (PP). Jorginho left behind well-known figures in that election, such as former governor Raimundo Colombo, then senator Paulo Bauer and former PT senator Ideli Salvatti.

At the time, he had been one of the few candidates to declare support for Bolsonaro, still seen as an underdog in the first round. The same strategy gave Jorginho a comfortable victory in the government election in 2022, with Bolsonaro already in the Presidency.

For politicians of different stripes, Santa Catarina’s support for Bolsonaro is a “natural” development of the strength of conservative values ​​in the state. A recurring justification is that the migration of Germans and Italians to Santa Catarina, in the 19th century, bears similarities to the type of occupation seen in the United States, conducive to a combination of religious appeal and defense of private initiative. According to Congresswoman Paulinha, in Santa Catarina, “even progressives identify with God, country and family”, Bolsonaro’s motto.

This strength of Bolsonarism, however, creates more and more discomfort among state veterans. Bauer and former senator Jorge Bornhausen (PSD), one of Gilberto Kassab’s closest allies, have used meetings with businesspeople to demarcate a line against Carlos Bolsonaro’s (PL) candidacy for the Senate this year. Another critic of Santa Catarina’s Bolsonarization is the mayor of Camboriú, Leonel Pavan (PSD), who has been governor, deputy and senator, and last year helped to elect his daughter, Juliana, as mayor of Balneário Camboriú.

With two terms as governor and two as senator, Esperidião Amin is seen as the main threat to the election of Carlos — who migrated to the state in the expectation of a peaceful campaign, a hypothesis that has become remote.

In the last election, however, Amin finished the race for government in fifth place. Furthermore, he failed in his attempts to elect his wife, Ângela, and his son, João, to positions in the Legislature, which signaled an exhaustion of the “familism” that has always marked Santa Catarina politics. On the other hand, Carlos’ opponents are betting that the Bolsonaro’s “familism” could, for similar reasons, turn against him.

— Meritocracy has always been one of the main values ​​of Santa Catarina — summarizes the mayor of Florianópolis, Topázio Neto, who will support PL candidacies this year.