Former mayor of Fortaleza is barred from accessing the stage with Lula: 'Enough of political violence'

Pre-candidate to run for Mayor of Fortaleza for PT, federal deputy Luizianne Lins was barred from being on stage with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Ceará this Friday, 19th. The press office says that she “will not submit to that again” and that Luizianne was a victim of “political violence”. In contrast, another party pre-candidate for the same post, the president of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará, Evandro Leitão, was with Lula.

Lula was in Ceará to sign the decree that creates the first campus of the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) in the State, the first outside of São Paulo. The event was organized by the Ministry of Education, led by the former governor of the State, Camilo Santana, main supporter of Leitão's candidacy. Sought by Estadão, the party directory in Fortaleza has not yet commented.

According to Luizianne's office, who was mayor of Fortaleza for two terms, she “was prevented from accessing the authorities and prohibited from going up on the stage where the president was”. “The deputy will not submit to this again, as she has had enough of so much political violence against her, who has always been a supporter of President Lula, even when he was incarcerated in the PF in Curitiba”, says the note.

The PT has not yet decided who will receive the nomination to be the party's candidate for Mayor of Fortaleza. Currently, five names are in the internal dispute: Luizianne, Leitão, former federal deputy Artur Bruno, the president of the PT in the capital of Ceará, Guilherme Sampaio, and state deputy Larissa Gaspar.

The main dispute is between Luizianne and Leitão. The former mayor relies on the political capital built in Fortaleza and the proximity to the PT base, but comes from a defeat in the election in 2020.

Leitão, in turn, has favoritism due to the support of Camilo, the main political figure in the State, but at the same time it is a name that has partial rejection at the base due to being a neophyte PT member.

He migrated from PDT to PT in November, amid the party's deep crisis in Ceará, which has lasted since mid-2022. His act of affiliation was attended by the most illustrious PT members in the State: the president of the party in Ceará, Antônio Filho , the president of the party in Fortaleza, Guilherme Sampaio, governor Elmano de Freitas, Camilo Santana and the government leader in the Chamber of Deputies, José Guimarães.

The former mayor of Fortaleza and current federal deputy has already publicly complained about her relationship with Camilo Santana on other occasions. Last week, in an interview with the Ceará newspaper The people, she showed discontent with the minister. “It never helped me at all from a political point of view, really,” she said.