Former treasurer of , Delúbio Soares, 70, is back. Arrested twice for the scandals that tarnished the party’s image – and Lava Jato –, he wants to run for Goiás, his home state. It will not be the only monthly payer, as those convicted of the scheme reported in 2005 were called, who will return to the polls.
The former minister and former federal deputy João Paulo Cunha will also seek vacancies at . “We are not returning to rescue anything. It is because there is a need to expand the PT bench”, he said this Monday (15), in an interview with Sheet.
In two hours of conversation via video call, Delúbio defended his innocence. With the PT flag in the background, a red polo shirt, party brooch and a panama hat, he does not call it “criminal action 470”, case number at the (Supreme Federal Court).
For him, the complaint was the gateway to years of political persecution of the PT. Appointed as the operator of the monthly allowance, he always denied paying allowances to allied deputies. But he admitted the existence of slush funds in PT campaigns and assumed responsibility for the practice. He was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison for active duty, served a sentence for more than two years (one and a half years in house arrest) and .
Two years later, he was sentenced to six years in prison by Lava Jato on charges of having obtained fraudulent loans. The arrest was when the STF decided that the sentence could only be served after all resources in the action were exhausted – a decision that also allowed for his release that year. In 2023, the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) annulled the sentence because it understood that the processing should have taken place in the Electoral Court and not in the Common Court.
Delúbio maintains that he did nothing wrong, calls other Lava Jato prisoners “colleagues in misfortune” and reduces many of his hardships to “political” situations, as if to say, in football jargon, that it “is part of the game”. He says he has no regrets, not even about his expulsion from the PT, the party he helped found and from which he stayed away between 2005 and 2011.
Publicly embraced at the beginning of the month, Delúbio received a prominent mention during a PT meeting in August 2025. The former treasurer was mentioned by name by the president in a speech that asked for reparations for the “mistakes we made”.
Mr. he had only run for office once, in 1986. Why come back now?
I have been in national politics for 40 years: 20 years of success and 20 years of some difficulties. In the years of success, we structured the PT and launched Lula as a candidate for president. Then there was the denunciation of the monthly allowance, in 2005. A lie. I was expelled from PT for six years. I’ve spent the last 20 years defending myself from false accusations. I don’t know why he [] He did this crazy thing and everyone thought it was true. I was summoned 93 times to go to the hospital and all the questions were repeated. But it’s part of life, it’s part of politics. There’s nothing against Delúbio Soares today.
What will be your electoral flag?
I want to be in Congress to help Lula govern. There’s no point fighting with Congress if you’re not willing to be a candidate. Furthermore, we need to increase the progressive bench in Goiás. I also have specific agendas: energy, with Goiás suffering from Equatorial [empresa responsável também pela concessão da Sabesp em São Paulo]the expansion of the mode of transport and many in education. I will defend the creation of a sovereign wealth fund to support basic education and leave the federal government responsible for early childhood and secondary education.
Mr. Do you think it is more difficult to negotiate with Congress today?
This is a question you should ask the ministers of political articulation, not me (laughs). In an interview with Jô Soares, Ulysses Guimarães said that there are no fools in Congress. They may even think that people are not voting with their people, but they are, yes, voting with the interests of those who elected them. If the elected deputy is financed by the banks, he will vote with the bankers. It’s a game of interests that hasn’t changed.
Why Mr. Did you insist on returning to PT after your expulsion? Have you ever thought about joining another party?
In the 2010 elections, when I was still expelled from the PT, other parties invited me to join their ranks. But I am the founder of PT, PT is part of my life and I am part of PT’s life. I didn’t care.
If Lula is re-elected, what can we expect in the next four years?
Lula’s election is vital for the country’s future, and it needs to be in the first round, to have more capacity and respect. In 2022, Lula made a series of proposals based on a plan for the reconstruction and transformation of Brazil. It was possible to carry out the recovery process: reinvestment in education, restructuring social programs, increasing purchasing power and the minimum wage. All this with great difficulty.
Now we need another mandate to make the transformation. The only equality we have is in voting. We need to work so that in 2030 [próxima eleição presidencial] few people need Bolsa Família. It is important right now, but it cannot be a permanent program. Other countries have ended extreme poverty, like China, and we are able to do that in Brazil.
Speaking of the next elections, what has the progressive camp done to form new leaders?
Today’s youth saw the PT suffer very strong attacks in the Mensalão and Lava Jato. The monthly allowance removed from politics, for more than 20 years, the president of the PT, who was José Genoíno, the main minister of Lula, who was José Dirceu [então na Casa Civil]the president of the Chamber, who was João Paulo Cunha. I stayed in chess, as they say, together with Valdemar Costa Neto [presidente do PL]Bishop Rodrigues [ex-deputado federal do PL-RJ]Pedro Corrêa [ex-presidente do PP] and several PT allies.
What did that signal at that moment? That the PT is a party that goes to jail and takes its main allies with it. The PT suffered wear and tear and this intensified with Lava Jato. That doesn’t mean we leave the world feeling sad. We have to work and make sure that our explanation prevents new generations from going through what we went through.
And restructuring is very difficult in a party. See how many years Valdemar has been president of the PL, Renata Abreu has been president of Podemos, and Aécio runs the PSDB. A political party is an association of people, and the PT has sought its renewal among youth, we have quotas. It’s not easy, because political spaces are limited.
Both Mr. when José Dirceu and João Paulo Cunha are returning to the polls in 2026. Is this a form of justice after the imprisonment for the monthly allowance?
We are not coming back to rescue anything. It is because there is a need to expand the PT bench. I will continue doing what I have always done: fighting for a hunger-free, supportive and sovereign Brazil. The election does not change my life, it is important so that I can participate in the debate.
If I weren’t a candidate, I wouldn’t be talking to you and you wouldn’t be talking to me. This is why political disputes are important: exchanging experiences. The same Sheet which is giving me the opportunity to explain, after 21 years, what happened in June 2005. At the time, no one wanted to listen to me: I went to the CPI and, even though I spoke for hours, they published the opposite. We recovered the PT’s image, but it is important to consolidate democracy in Brazil.
Since Mr. He mentioned the Mensalão again: do you regret having assumed responsibility for the slush fund scheme alone?
Classic slush fund, in Brazil, is when you have an expense not registered with the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) and the money has no origin. In the case that became criminal action 470, at the end of the elections [de 2002]several PT allies and state directories left with debts that were not registered with the TSE. There was an opportunity to take out loans from two banks, but PT was not eligible. Businessman Marcos Valério had the financial capacity to receive and took out the loans. We paid the expenses out of the bank, with original money, and that’s why I called them unaccounted for.
When you are responsible for the finances of a party or a company you have to assume a type of responsibility. President Lula’s is to govern the country. That of the party, of making political articulations. Mine was to find a solution, and that’s what I found at the time. There was no crime.
I don’t regret anything because we didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t blame anyone because it was part of the political moment, which was completely overcome. I’m a person without resentment, I’ve never felt resentment towards anyone, even when I was arrested.
I was also convicted in Lava Jato for an assumption that I had asked for a loan from Banco Schahin, and it was not true. I was freezing in a cell in Curitiba, full of rats and cockroaches. But I don’t complain about that, it’s part of political life. Eduardo Cunha, João Vaccari, Gim Argello, each in his own cell, we were colleagues in misfortune. It took 20 years, but this phase has been overcome, thank God.
X-RAY | Delúbio Soares, 70
Teacher and metalworker, he was one of the founders of the PT and party treasurer. He was convicted and imprisoned for the Mensalão scandal. He was also the target of , in a process annulled due to the court’s incompetence. He is a pre-candidate for federal deputy for the PT in Goiás.
