In the 29 years he served as , Ivan Valente says he never spoke from the tribune on the right side of the Chamber. The custom of speaking on the side of the plenary corresponding to their ideological camp, he says, is common among radical congressmen — whether they are on the right, who prefer the opposite side, or on the left, like him. “Of course, I consider myself radical”, he responds to Sheet. “Radical is attacking issues at the root.”
Founder of , he left the party in 2005, due to dissatisfaction that began after the letter to calm the business community and the financial market in 2002. Since then, Valente, 79, has been a member of the Socialism and Freedom Party, , of which he is also one of the creators.
Today, the party has only 13 of the 513 seats in the Chamber, a number it needs to maintain in this year’s elections to avoid being swallowed up by the barrier clause. For parties that do not reach a certain percentage of votes, the rule restricts access to money from the party fund, in addition to free advertising on radio and television.
Also considering the parliamentarians of the federation with the Network, the number of seats increases to 16.
“In 2022, we will reach more than double the percentage established by the clause”, says the former congressman, who left the cabinet recently and returned it to the former Minister of the Environment (Rede), for whom he is a deputy. Now, he intends to work behind the scenes. “We have the expectation that it is possible to keep the party independent”, he adds.
In Valente’s office in , a two-story house 30 minutes from the center of São Paulo, there are busts of left-wing revolutionaries, such as former presidents Mao Tse-Tung, of China, and Russia’s Vladimir Lenin.
Cardboard boxes contain round stickers critical of the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, in support of Palestine, and, close to the room where he works, are those with the face of the deputy’s political heir: Juliano Medeiros, former national president of PSOL and who heads the federation with the Network.
Active on social media and smiling, Medeiros, 42, is part of the party’s strategy for this year’s elections to win over young voters. To this end, state deputy Guilherme Cortez, 28, is also in his sights, who will seek a seat in the Chamber.
In São Paulo, today the PSOL federal deputy seats are occupied by Erika Hilton, 33, Sonia Guajajara, 53, and Sâmia Bomfim, 36, in addition to a fourth, from , the group’s dean.
At 91 years old, the former mayor of São Paulo did not adopt an heir to the position, as is the case with Ivan Valente and Medeiros. She maintains a busy schedule between the capital of São Paulo, Brasília and her pre-candidacy for the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, where she wants to compete for a seat as state deputy.
Another, more ambitious, political investment is the name of former federal deputy Manuela D’Ávila, 44, in the southern region of the country. She left after more than two decades to join PSOL in December 2025, becoming the acronym’s main internal bet for PSOL. The Legislative House has not had a member of the party since 2015, when senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP) left it to join the Network.
That of the government (PT) in refusing the appointment of , Attorney General of the Union, to the (Supreme Federal Court). The House, responsible for deciding nominations to the Supreme Court and the Central Bank, is now mainly taken over by right-wing parties, such as the PL.
The Senate is a priority for PSOL in 2026, according to the party’s national president, Paula Coradi.
“We have the impression that the Senate election will be very strategic. It will be where the extreme right will focus its political strength,” he told Sheet. “We have invested a lot politically in these candidacies. Unconditional political support and coordination are being made so that we can move forward, especially in the Senate.”
Without mentioning names, Coradi states that there is the “construction of public figures”, that is, unknown people who compete to gradually build an image in the minds of voters, but he also says he sees a real dispute for the Senate. In addition to Manuela D’Ávila for Rio Grande do Sul, the region has the Florianópolis councilor, Afrânio Boppré, as a pre-candidate for the Senate for Santa Catarina.
“It is not PSOL’s profile to be successful in the Senate”, declares Mateus de Albuquerque, political scientist, professor at UFJF (Federal University of Juiz de Fora).
“There is a part of society that is psolist, but it is a minority. So, the PSOL succeeds in proportional elections, such as the Chamber, Legislative Assemblies. But the PSOL has difficulty forming social majorities, as is the case with the Senate”, he explains.
For Albuquerque, the bet on Manuela D’Ávila is “interesting”, partly because of the capital she already inherits from before PSOL and partly because the former PC do B, in her personal activism in recent years, has managed to articulate with broader sectors of society, mainly the middle-class female public who are not psolist voters.
The Chamber and the barrier clause, however, remain on the radar. “We hope to increase our bench”, continues the PSOL president, who plans to gain 18 seats in Congress in 2026.
The expectation includes, according to the party leader, maintaining the seats of deputies in São Paulo. The state elects 70 deputies in total, the largest share in the Chamber.
