A meeting last week brought together Minas Gerais leaders from , which is a pre-candidate for the Presidency, from , the party of senator Cleitinho Azevedo, who leads the state government.
After Cleitinho’s meeting with PL leaders from Minas Gerais and the federal deputy (PL-MG), the alliance was closed in a subsequent meeting, which involved Flávio and Rogério Marinho, coordinator of the party’s presidential pre-campaign.
With this, the two parties distance themselves from the current governor Mateus Simões (PSD), who will run for re-election supported by (Novo).
The agreement was that PL and Republicans will continue together in Minas Gerais this year, but the positions on the ticket have not yet been defined. The main doubt involves Cleitinho himself, who has been postponing the decision on whether to run as a candidate for Palácio Tiradentes.
“We defined that the PL and the Republicans will be together in the election. The important thing is that the PL needs to be on the ticket so that there is no doubt for the voter”, he told Sheet federal deputy Zé Vitor.
He said it was not clear to party voters in the 2022 election which candidate in Minas was supported by (PL), who was seeking re-election. Despite having senator Carlos Viana (currently in ) running for PL, Bolsonaro at the time also praised Zema, who ended up being re-elected in the first round.
The Minas Gerais agreement between PL and Republicans took place on the eve of the release of the audio in which Flávio spoke to the former banker, owner of Master. Party members, however, say that the scenario will not change.
Mateus Simões around his name, but his commitment to supporting Zema for Palácio do Planalto and having another presidential candidate running for his party, kept him away from an alliance with the PL. The conversations with Vorcaro last week contributed to this.
If Cleitinho chooses not to run for Palácio Tiradentes, the former president of Fiemg (Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais) Flávio Roscoe or the former mayor of Betim Vittorio Medioli will be thrown into the race for government — both are also considered as possible candidates for Cleitinho’s vice-president.
Search for an alternative to Pacheco
On the left, the president’s party continues to search for a candidate for government in the state in the second largest electoral college in the country.
After an offensive led by Lula himself to convince Rodrigo Pacheco (PSB), the party executive has already . Edinho Silva, president of the PT, said this week in a podcast that “unfortunately he [Pacheco] chose not to be a candidate” and that the acronym continues to search for a name in Minas Gerais.
In the party’s Minas Gerais wings, there are still those who hope that Pacheco will reverse his position after a conversation with Lula, but the senator’s interlocutors consider the possibility of him changing his mind as remote.
The party reaches less than five months from the first round without advanced talks with a potential candidate for Palácio Tiradentes.
The former mayor of Contagem Marília Campos (PT), considered the member with the party’s greatest voting potential in the state, decided that she will run for the Senate, in .
At the moment, two names appear as an alternative for a PT platform: the former mayor of Belo Horizonte Alexandre Kalil (PDT) and (PSB), son of former vice-president José Alencar.
The first appeared in the most recent Genial/Quaest survey in second position, with 14% of voting intentions, behind Cleitinho (30%). In a scenario without the Republican senator, Kalil led, cited by 18% of voters.
The disputes between him and members of the PT left by the 2022 dispute, when the former mayor did not reach the second round, weigh against the PDT pre-candidate. At the time, Kalil was experiencing difficulties in the interior and even chose the candidate for vice-president, André Quintão, to replace him on schedules far from the capital, which displeased the PT members.
Businessman Josué Gomes, former president of Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), joined the PSB on the last day of the party window for candidates in this year’s elections. The movement encouraged more traditional wings of the party in Minas and members of allied parties. Among PT members, however, there is distrust about the businessman’s willingness to effectively enter the dispute for government.
Another pessebista who is cited as Lula’s possible candidate for the Tiradentes Palace is the former state attorney general Jarbas Soares (PSB).
