Brazil’s Lula taps former rival as his pick for running mate

Sao Paulo, April 9 (BNA) Former Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday that he had chosen a former rival to be his deputy in the October elections. The goal of the selection appears to be to improve the appeal of the left to centrist voters and boost his lead in early opinion polls over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.

Da Silva held a public meeting in a São Paulo hotel with Geraldo Alcín, the three-term governor of São Paulo, and ran against da Silva in the 2006 presidential election. The selection of Alcamine depends on the final approval of da Silva’s Left Workers’ Party Executive Committee, which She is widely expected to endorse the choice. The Associated Press reported that the decision will come next week.

“No one has more experience of being a vice president than Alkmin,” da Silva said at the event, which was broadcast live. This card, if confirmed, is not just for winning the election. Perhaps winning the elections will be easier than the task before us to restore this country.”

“We will talk to the whole of society: to business leaders, to the working class,” he added.

Alckmin, 69, is a devout Catholic who worked as a country doctor in his early life. The soft-spoken politician rose to the spotlight in 2001 when, as deputy governor, he inherited the governor of São Paulo and used privatization to fund state investments. He returned to the job in 2011 and was re-elected four years later.

da Silva’s choice of Alcamine is largely symbolic, as the former ruler is not a political force in and of itself, according to Carlos Mello, a professor of political science at Inspire University in São Paulo.

Lula (da Silva) still needs more organic relationships. There is no broad coalition yet. What is essential for Lula is making deals with centrist parties. Milo said over the phone.

Alckmin recently joined the Brazilian Socialist Party, leaving behind the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party that he helped found three decades ago. This departure coincided with his departure from conservative politics in the years following his 2018 presidential nomination, when he was defeated in the first round.

In the 2006 race, da Silva accused Alcumen and his allies of plotting a near-total privatization of Brazilian state-run companies. The former governor responded by wearing a jacket bearing the logos of several of these companies, claiming he would promote them instead. For his part, Alckmin da Silva and PT were accused of trying to buy a dossier containing lies about his allies. da Silva and his party have denied any wrongdoing.

At the event on Friday, they seemed to have left any bitterness behind.

“This is not the time for selfishness,” said Alkmene alongside da Silva. “This is a time of generosity and union.”

The two have praised each other in recent weeks, with the former president saying in March that both have changed since they were opponents. The fake connection recently surprised many Brazilian politicians, who still remember their friction over the years.

Alckmin received just 5% of the first-round vote in 2018. Da Silva had intended to run and was the front-runner in early polls, but his corruption convictions kept him out of the race and allowed Bolsonaro, the then candidate, to win the run-off. Easily.

Since then, Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that the judge who convicted da Silva was biased and colluded with the plaintiffs, paving the way for the former president to run again and seek alliances with moderates. Some are still pending, as allies da Silva and Bolsonaro alike seek them out.

Although Lula is outperforming Bolsonaro in the initial polls, recent weeks have shown that the percentage of people intending to vote for the far-right president is creeping higher as the “Third Way” nominations have lost support.

The Brazilian president responded to the potential competition ticket with laughter on Twitter, retweeting a post in which da Silva said he and Alcamine wanted to rebuild the country and be “buddies”. Bolsonaro’s three sons who hold public office have also spoken out about the opponents.

“The choice was not so easy,” said Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal lawmaker.

Workers’ Party chairwoman Gliese Hoffman said da Silva, Alcmin and other anti-Bolsonaro parties and politicians would launch a movement at the end of April to show that the alliance against the president was extending its hand beyond the Brazilian left.

“We need a big movement to defend Brazilian democracy,” Hoffman told reporters in Sao Paulo. “We need to discuss important issues.”

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