The acronym that ruled Brazil twice suffers a new meltdown at the polls, losing even the government of SP for the first time in 28 years and showing that the former center-right continues to be swallowed up by Bolsonarismo. PSDB came out of Sunday’s election (10/02) even smaller, accentuating the process of decay of the legend that began to be made explicit in 2018.
By electing only 13 deputies to the Chamber, the PSDB FALLS to the Congressional zone that concentrates niche acronyms, such as PSOL, or without tradition such as Podemos and which is just above the line of the runts – the subtitles with less than 11 deputies that do not are more entitled to receive public resources and TV time.
The situation is only worse because the party formed a federation with Cidadania, which will guarantee a bench of 18 deputies.
The total vote of toucan candidates for the Federal Chamber was only 3.2 million – against 11 million in 2014.
The party also failed to elect senators last Sunday, and will see its bench in the House drop from six to four members. In contrast to its more successful times, the party still failed to elect governors in the first round.
There are still four candidates in second-round races for the governments of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraíba, Mato Grosso do Sul and Pernambuco, but all of them went into the new round at a disadvantage, behind names from Bolsonarism or the left.
historic defeats
The most significant defeat of the toucans, however, occurred in the birthplace of the legend: the state of São Paulo. For the first time in 28 years, the party lost the contest for the São Paulo Executive, not even managing to reach the second round of the former “Tucanistan”. Sunday’s results showed that bolsonarismo continues to swallow the old center-right PSDB in the state.
Instead of a traditional duel between a PT and a toucan, the second round will feature Fernando Haddad (PT) and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), a carioca who moved his electoral domicile to São Paulo in January and, with strong support do Planalto, managed to gather 42.3% of the votes in the first round. The toucan candidate, the current governor Rodrigo Garcia, finished in third place, with 18.4%.
In the same state, the toucans still suffered other symbolic defeats. Historic name of the legend and twice candidate for the Presidency, the former governor José Serra got only 88 thousand votes in his campaign for federal deputy, embittering the substitute. The toucans also saw their bench in the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (Alesp) drop from 13 to 9 deputies.
In Minas Gerais, a state that the PSDB has governed three times, the toucan candidate for local government in 2022, Marcos Pestena, won just 0.56% of the votes – the worst mark of toucans in Minas since the creation of the party and close to small candidates. of PMB and PCB. It was the first time since 1990 that a toucan was not among the two most voted in the state. As in São Paulo, the old votes of the PSDB migrated to a politician aligned with Bolsonarism, the current governor Romeu Zema (Novo).
Candidate for the presidency by the acronym in 2014, Aécio Neves still managed to narrowly get re-elected federal deputy in Minas, but lost 21,000 votes compared to the 2018 election.
Decline
At the end of 1998, ten years after its foundation, the PSDB was at its peak. He had guaranteed the reelection of a president of the Republic in the first round, won the government of seven states and elected the second largest bench in the Chamber, with 99 deputies.
In the following four elections, the party still proved capable of placing a candidate in the second round of the presidential race, in addition to remaining entrenched in the government of São Paulo, the largest electoral college in the country, which had been won for the first time by the PSDB in 1994. , when the toucans replaced malufismo and quercism as the main forces of the state.
The PSDB’s turbulent phase began after the 2014 election, when the party was just 3.28 points behind Dilma Rousseff (PT) in the presidential race.
At the time, the then leader of the acronym, Aécio Neves, bet on a strategy of putting the result of the election in doubt, asking for an audit of the polls and stimulating a climate of contestation of the government’s legitimacy. However, the party failed to reap the fruits of the radicalization of the electorate, which began to demand the impeachment of Dilma in the streets.
Aécio’s leadership against the party would prove to be decisive in accelerating the party’s demise. In 2016, he articulated the PSDB’s entry into the unpopular Michel Temer government, which would soon be paralyzed by a series of corruption scandals. The following year, it was the turn of Aécio’s political capital to collapse after businessman Joesley Batista revealed a recording in which Aécio appeared asking for R$ 2 million.
Aécio tried to remain in the Senate and in the presidency of the party, but at the end of 2017 he was replaced by Geraldo Alckmin. In addition to having to deal with the challenge of leading a party with a frayed image, Alckmin had his own problems.
In 2016, he had promoted within the party a patron who was not part of the PSDB’s historical framework: the publicist João Doria. Initially, the strategy worked: the rookie Doria won the city hall of São Paulo in the first round.
At the time, the deep divisions that were growing within the PSDB were widened when militants from rival wings of the party exchanged fists in the street during the primaries to choose the party’s candidate for mayor of the country’s largest city.
At the summit, fights also spread. Soon the creature began to rival the creator. Alckmin and Doria broke up in 2018, accelerating the process of desegregation of the São Paulo toucanate. Meanwhile, Aécio, from Minas Gerais, continued to operate behind the scenes to regain his former influence.
In 2018, Alckmin launched a new presidential candidacy, but the wear and tear caused by the party’s association with the government and Aécio’s scandals took their toll. The candidate obtained a humiliating 4.76% of the votes – the PSDB’s worst result in a presidential election. After years of political tension, the electorate that used to support the PSDB as opposed to the PT chose to migrate to the far-right candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro. In the Chamber, the PSDB shrank from 54 to 29 deputies.
During the 2018 campaign, the party accumulated even more negative facts. Former Paraná governor Beto Richa, son of one of the most prominent founders of the acronym, was arrested on suspicion of corruption.
In front of the picture, Tasso Jereissati, former national president of the acronym, even made a self-criticism. “The big mistake, and a good part of the PSDB was opposed to this, was entering the Temer government. It was the last straw, along with Aécio’s problems. We were swallowed by the temptation of power,” he said at the time.
With the fall of Alckmin, it seemed that Doria would be elevated to the most influential figure in the party thanks to his successful candidacy for the São Paulo government in the same year. But his leadership was never accepted by older names of the acronym.
Even so, Doria began to articulate a candidacy for the Presidency. But, at the end of 2021, the new party primaries, far from moving towards a consecration of its pre-candidacy, ended up turning into a new internal struggle. Doria ended up winning the primaries, but was forced by the party leadership and by machinations encouraged by Aécio Neves to give up the candidacy. The toucan chiefs preferred to concentrate their efforts on the dispute for the São Paulo Executive.
At the time, Aécio stated that, given the high national rejection of Doria, the PSDB was in danger of becoming a “dwarf” acronym if it insisted on the São Paulo politician’s candidacy.
Fall
With Doria out, the government of São Paulo was in the hands of Rodrigo Garcia, who, like his predecessor, was a neophyte in the PSDB, having migrated from the old DEM the previous year.
Without contesting the São Paulo election with a traditional toucan and without launching its own candidate for the presidency for the first time since 1989, the party still joined in an unenthusiastic way to the candidacy for the Planalto de Simone Tebet (MDB), indicating its vice. In the end, Tebet only got 4.16% of the votes. Garcia ended up being run over by Bolsonarista Tarcísio de Freitas.
“The PSDB fell apart in this election, and it wasn’t for lack of warning,” said Tucano deputy Alexandre Frota after the party’s defeat in São Paulo. Frota itself failed to be reelected.
At the moment, the party suffers another split. Part of the Tucana old guard, formed by names like Tasso Jereissati and Aloysio Nunes, has already announced that it intends to support Lula. But younger federal deputies of the acronym have already been associating themselves with Bolsonarism.
The current president of the party, Bruno Araújo, called a meeting to decide what the position should be in the second round. The trend should be to free up affiliates to support whoever they want. This is quite a contrast to the position the party took in 1989, when the PSDB was led by Franco Montoro (1916-1999) and supported Lula in the second round against the populist Fernando Collor.
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