Ciro is a careerist and will never be president.

 

The Workers' Party lost the presidential election, but remains the second largest party in Brazil (MDB is still the first) and the largest left-wing party in Latin America. Even with the legal-parliamentary-media coup, it managed to elect the largest bloc of federal deputies.

 

Ciro lacks the political relevance to be elected nationally without the support of the PT (Workers' Party). And he knows it; he knows it so well that he blames the PT for his defeat, repeatedly saying that if the PT had supported him, he would have won the elections. Clearly, Ciro admits he lacks political capital and that he could only achieve victory if the PT had backed him. 

 

Let's remember that on October 07th, many PT voters impulsively voted for Ciro, believing he had a better chance of winning against Bolsonaro than Haddad. It wasn't Haddad who took votes away from Ciro; it was quite the opposite.

 

 

Since losing the 2018 elections, Ciro has launched an attack on the PT (Workers' Party). He shows himself to be resentful and nefarious in the adjectives he uses to disqualify PT voters, and he diminishes himself when speaking ill of Lula and Dilma.

 

After all of Ciro's statements against Lula and the PT, progressive voters will never vote for him. Ciro is isolated because he is impulsive and aggressive, acting like a colonel who doesn't accept counterpoints, insulting opponents and even allies without decorum or logical argumentation. Ciro and Bolsonaro are two sides of the same coin. They attract media attention through their angry bravado.

 

Ciro, the careerist 

 

Ciro is a product of Arena, "he began his political life in 1982 in the former PDS, the party that succeeded Arena (National Renewal Alliance), the party that politically supported the military dictatorship" (PRAZERES, 2016). The truth is that Ciro has never been left-wing. Ciro has the mindset of an old-fashioned right-winger, authoritarian and oligarchic. 

 

Ciro followed the trend, joining the PMDB (Tancredo Neves' party) in 1983 and becoming a state deputy for Ceará; in 1990 he embraced Tasso Jereissati's PSDB, being consecutively elected mayor of Fortaleza, a position he held for 15 months, and Governor of Ceará. Ciro closed the PSDB era as Minister of Finance under Itamar Franco for a brief period of four months. In the end, he quarreled with the PSDB, perhaps because the party had chosen FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) and not him to run for president. 

 

In 1997 he joined the PPS and ran for president in 1998 and 2002. During Lula's presidency, he assumed the Ministry of National Integration and in 2005 joined the PSB, being elected federal deputy. "In the four years he served as a federal deputy for the PSB, Ciro did not present a single bill or proposed constitutional amendment. He missed almost half of the plenary sessions and practically ignored committee meetings." (MARINI, 2018). He remained with the party until he was passed over in favor of Eduardo Campos for the 2014 presidential election. 

 

Ciro then went to the newly created PROS party. In 2015 he changed parties again, finding refuge in the PDT and running in the 2018 elections.

 

 

Ciro keeps switching parties hoping his fleeting popularity will last long enough, that it won't die out before it takes off. Opportunistic, he allies himself with whoever can give him votes; that's what he did with Tasso Jereissati and Lula. Will Ciro get closer to Bolsonaro? 

 

“Known for what he himself calls “party inconstancy”, Gomes arrives at his seventh party (...) with a curious average of 4,7 years of permanence in each party and a trail of sharp barbs exchanged between him and his former colleagues. (PRAZERES, 2016).

 

Ciro is increasingly distancing himself from the center-left. He believes he should ride the wave of the right's return to power. But the rise is not of a democratic right, it's of the far-right, which despises democracy and politics itself, and Ciro doesn't stand a chance against it.

 

It wasn't the PT that ended; it was you, Ciro.

 

References:

 

MARINI, Luisa. Ciro did not present any bills and was absent for almost half of his term in the Chamber.. Available in: https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/eleicoes/ciro-nao-apresentou-projeto-e-faltou-a-quase-metade-do-mandato-na-camara/>. Accessed on: 08 Jan. 2019.

 

 PLEASURE, Leandro. With an average of 4,7 years per party, Ciro has a history of feuding with former colleagues. Available in:https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2016/01/22/com-media-de-47-anos-por-partido-ciro-tem-rastro-de-farpas-por-partidos.htm>. Accessed on: 07 Jan. 2019.

 

CEARÁ TRIBUNE. Bolsonaro did not win in any municipality in Ceará; Ciro and Haddad tied 92-92. Available in:http://tribunadoceara.uol.com.br/noticias/eleicoes-2018/bolsonaro-nao-venceu-em-nenhum-municipio-do-ceara-ciro-e-haddad-empataram-em-92-a-92/amp/>. Accessed on: 07 Jan. 2019.