01/13/2024 – 18:32
The former secretary of International Relations of the municipality of São Paulo Marta Suplicy and the pre-candidate for mayor Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) met this Saturday, the 13th, and sealed an agreement for an alliance in this year's elections for City Hall. Upon leaving Marta's house, the PSOL deputy said that the formation of the ticket depends, however, on the approval of the PT.
The two met for the first time and spent around three hours together in Marta's apartment in the Jardim Paulista neighborhood. Boulos classified the meeting as “excellent” and said that the main challenge for both is to reissue a democratic front to defeat Bolsonarism in São Paulo, in allusion to Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), who seeks the support of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for the municipal election.
Marta was Nunes' secretary, but left the position to join the PT and become Boulos' deputy.
“This is an alliance that will not look to the past. It is built on a commitment to the present and the future. Now, confirmation of the ticket depends on the Workers' Party”, said Boulos upon leaving the meeting.
In the past, Marta's husband has called the PSOL deputy a “scam” and Luiza Erundina, then Boulos' deputy in 2020, said that Marta was a “traitor” for the way she left the PT in 2015. Now, Boulos has said that, After confirming Marta's return to PT, he wants to take the former mayor to a meeting with social movements so she can reconnect with this segment.
According to Boulos, the criticisms exchanged in the past and the political differences show that the alliance in fact expands the political and electoral reach of the ticket. “We have had disagreements in the past,” he said.
Boulos said that Marta adds administrative experience and breadth to the democratic front he is building. The pre-candidate pointed out that several parties that were not with him in 2020, either because they had a candidate or supported other names, are now with him. They fit the PT, PDT, Rede and PCdoB criteria.
The PSOL deputy arrived at Marta's house in his Celta. The union of the two on a ticket was sponsored by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Marta resigned from São Paulo City Hall on Tuesday, 9th.
According to advisors, after the conversation with the former mayor of São Paulo, the PSOL deputy intends to meet this Saturday with Eduardo Suplicy, Marta's ex-husband and PT councilor and the most voted candidate in the last municipal election.
Marta Suplicy did not leave the apartment to speak to journalists. Through the consultancy, she said she was “very honored” to welcome Boulos and his wife, Natalia Szermeta, coordinator of the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST).
The former mayor reproduced a manifesto defending the formation of a broad front, which was launched in September 2019 during the Bolsonaro government. Nunes' rapprochement with Bolsonaro was one of the reasons cited by Marta's allies for her leaving city hall this week. The mayor's negotiations with the former president, however, dragged on throughout 2023.
Asked about the matter, Boulos said that Marta would be able to respond better to “the times in which she made the decision”. “Now, it’s one thing to have negotiations. Another is to have a consolidation, which, in the case of Nunes and Bolsonaro, was done in the last days of December. So, she reacted to the consolidation”, said the PSOL pre-candidate.
“Marta had the stance of leaving the Nunes government,” he said.
Boulos has an international trip planned for the next few days. The forecast is that he will go to Paris this Sunday. Boarding was scheduled for this Saturday, but was postponed until the following day.
He is expected to meet with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. The conversation would be about projects that were successful in the French capital, mainly in the area of transport. Afterwards, the parliamentarian travels to China, where he will meet with local leaders in different municipalities in the Asian country. On the 23rd, he will be back in Brazil.
Marta can help Boulos with votes in the outskirts, where she is remembered for programs under her management such as the Unified Educational Centers (CEU) and the implementation of bus lanes and the Bilhete Único. In past elections, the former mayor performed well in electoral areas that are strongholds of the current president, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), in which the PT and Boulos did not make much progress.
According to Boulos, Marta is “very excited to organize and campaign”. He said he invited Marta to a meeting with social movements so that she could have a “reconnection”.
On the other hand, the former mayor is criticized for the creation of taxes during her administration, which earned her the nickname “Martaxa” and contributed to her not being re-elected in 2004.
Marta also faces resistance from a minority wing of the PT, which still resents the way she left the party in 2015. At the time, she criticized the party for starring in “one of the biggest corruption scandals the Brazilian nation has ever experienced”. The following year, she voted in favor of the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT), for whom she was minister.
Responsible for bringing Marta and Boulos together, federal deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP) said that it is “probable” that the former mayor's return to the PT will be made official at a major event on February 3, with the presence of Lula and of the party president, Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR). He highlighted, however, that it is necessary to check the president's agenda and that he is not part of the municipal PT's leadership, which will define the details of membership.
The calendar for Marta's affiliation with the party and the officialization of the ticket with Boulos will be discussed at a meeting of the São Paulo PT on Tuesday, 16.
Falcão also minimized the movement of state deputy Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP) who wants preliminary elections in the party to define Boulos's vice-president. He even suggested the name of councilor Luna Zarattini (PT-SP) in a statement to Folha de S.Paulo.
Rui Falcão stated that there is no history of running for vice president in the PT and that there are no candidates for it, as Luna herself ruled out the possibility. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the councilor thanked Suplicy, but said she was surprised by his nomination.
The tendency is for Luna to run for re-election to the City Council. “I understand, therefore, that it is up to me to help Guilherme Boulos and the democratic and popular movement that is being formed so that the left can once again govern this city, the largest and most unequal in the country”, wrote the councilor.
After lunch with Marta, Boulos went to Suplicy's house to meet him. The PSOL deputy said that the PT member is a political reference and that he wants to discuss the incorporation of basic income for citizenship, Suplicy's historic proposal, into his government program.
“We want to have Suplicy not only as a friend, but as a parliamentarian and activist involved in the campaign,” said Boulos.
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