Former minister Fernando Haddad, PT’s pre-candidate for the government of São Paulo, attributed the technical tie between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) in the voter intention polls for the Presidency of the Republic to “collective brainwashing”. According to him, there is a “huge contrast” between the two, which makes the current scenario “inadmissible”. The statements were made this Friday in a speech at Força Sindical headquarters, in São Paulo, at an event celebrating Labor Day.
— We are in a year where what is being seen in the electoral polls is unacceptable. Inadmissible. The contrast is so great, so great, that only collective brainwashing explains an impossible comparison between two characters (Lula and Flávio) in the history of Brazil. We have a civic challenge to fulfill, which is to defend the prerogatives of workers, of the democracy won by workers. This democracy agenda is ours – said the former minister.
According to the latest Genial/Quaest survey, released in April, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro has 42% of voting intentions in a possible second round for Palácio do Planalto, while Lula has 40%. It was the first time that Flávio appeared numerically ahead of his main opponent. Due to the margin of error of two percentage points plus or minus, however, the scenario constitutes a technical draw.
‘Defeat in the fight against corruption’
Also this Friday, at the same event, Haddad also told journalists that the two recent defeats of the Lula administration in Congress were “defeats in the fight against corruption”. The former minister referred to the rejection of the nomination of Jorge Messias, Attorney General of the Union, to the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in addition to the overturning of the presidential veto on the Dosimetry PL by Congress.
— I am of the opinion that this defeat, this so-called defeat in Congress, was a defeat in the fight against corruption. Today I myself was seeing political analysts saying that, behind this defeat, there was an intention of a great agreement around the impunity of those responsible for some recent scandals in Brazil — said Haddad, alluding to the articulations around the Banco Master scandal in the vote.
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Haddad also stated that he “regrets” Congress’ recent decisions due to the “brazenness of the criminals involved”:
— All that the people of this country want, ordinary citizens, is for all of their responsibilities to be resolved to the end. So I think that this supposed defeat of the president’s nomination for the Supreme Court, in fact, is a defeat for all of us — he added.
Former ministers Marina Silva (Rede) and Simone Tebet (PSB), pre-candidates for the Senate, also participated. The second already has a place secured for the campaign. Unlike other years, the trade unions did not hold major acts together, but rather smaller events at their headquarters.
Haddad was questioned by GLOBO about the creation of the ticket in São Paulo, the subject of an internal dispute between Marina Silva and Márcio França, both candidates for the remaining vacancy to run for the Senate:
— We have a good problem, because there are four former ministers of President Lula represented here in São Paulo, each with a convergent worldview, but with their own specificities that have to be considered by the voter. We have people here, everyone here has a clean record, services provided to the country, commitment to ethics in politics, people who have years and years of political experience — he assessed.
