By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA (Reuters) – The president of the PP, senator Ciro Nogueira (PI), is confident that the right will demonstrate strength in next year’s municipal elections and will win the election to the Planalto in 2026 even if former president Jair Bolsonaro becomes ” unfairly” ineligible, because he would maintain his strength as an electoral supporter.
“If this injustice happens, multiply by 10 your capacity to support victorious candidates in the 2024 and 2026 elections,” said Bolsonaro’s former head of the Civil House in an interview with Reuters.
Now a prominent name in the opposition wing of his strategic party, the same as the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), Ciro Nogueira admits a scenario that threatens Bolsonaro more and more closely and pushes the right publicly to make their calculations without him in the race electoral.
The former president, who returned to Brazil last week, is facing a series of investigations and investigations, including the Electoral Justice, which will judge his campaign against the reliability of the electronic voting system. Part of the lawsuits can make you ineligible for eight years.
Ciro Nogueira said that there are doubts in the Lula government about the advisability of the former president becoming ineligible because, in his opinion, this will generate a “feeling of injustice” that will make him stronger than if he could run again for the Planalto.
Despite this, Bolsonaro’s former minister does not believe in a popular uprising that would provoke a kind of January 8 if the Superior Electoral Court condemns him to the loss of political rights and removes him from the race.
“I don’t see any popular uprisings or upheavals. (It may occur) an unprecedented indignation and that fatally it will be transformed into votes, ”he said.
For the leader, Bolsonaro, “unquestionably the great leader of the opposition”, encourages several opposition leaders and there are others who made themselves with their own capacity and who can take care of this project, unlike the leftist parties that gravitate around President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“Plates with the support of the ineligible Bolsonaro, Tarcisio, Zema, Tereza, Ratinho, would win this (2026) election very easily. A Tarcisio and Zema ticket for vice or vice versa, or Michelle for vice, with Bolsonaro’s support?”, he commented.
“I think these are the names, politics is a queue, it may be that by then other names will appear, but I think the names put forward are these four that I mentioned”, he reinforced, citing the governors of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans ), from Minas, Romeu Zema (Novo), and from Paraná, Ratinho Júnior (PSD), in addition to Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), former Minister of Agriculture.
The president of the PP said that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, now in charge of PL Mulher, could be “a great candidate for vice” and, if you want, if you would elect senator in any of the 27 units of the federation, just she choose. Despite the calls, Bolsonaro said more than once that the woman does not have “experience” for positions in the Executive.
MORE STRICTITY IN THE FISCAL FRAMEWORK
The president of the PP said he had an “extremely negative” balance of the 100 days of the Lula administration. He assessed that he did not prepare for the return, the government is without command and north and lacks ministers like José Dirceu and Antonio Palocci who led the public machine.
“What was done in those 100 days? Changing the naming of programs that had existed for 20 years. Construction? None, except economic instability due to preposterous statements. So, it is a feeling of frustration, of pessimism with this total government”, he considered.
In an ironic tone, the leader highlighted that it is not easy to make opposition because PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann, and party deputies want to take their role. PT supporters have been harshly criticizing mainly the interest rate policy practiced by the Central Bank led by Roberto Campos Neto, who came to office in the Bolsonaro administration, in addition to opposing more austere measures proposed by the economic team.
Even so, Ciro Nogueira said he will make a responsible opposition to the current government. He will suggest that the party promote adjustments in the fiscal framework and tax reform. The rapporteur for the two measures in the Chamber will be PP deputies. He wants to talk to his coreligionist, the mayor, Arthur Lira (AL), about the subject.
One of the critical points of the leader is about how the government will manage to get 150 billion reais in revenue for the country to stop being in deficit and make a surplus in the coming years. According to him, there would be no way for this to happen without an increase in taxes because, so far, the proposed measures such as taxing gambling and others would not reach this amount.
“The party, if it’s up to me, will not approve these projects and reforms as they are being presented. If they undergo the necessary adjustments, then they can count on our support”, he emphasized.
The PP president also stated that, if it were up to him, under “no circumstances” would the party have a conversation with Lula and the government to integrate the current administration. He noted that individually, if a deputy wants to support the government, he should be accountable to his population and voters.
“But I guarantee it, and I have an expressive leadership in my party, and as an impossible party we support the PT government”, he said.
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