At the last minute, Pimentel may turn left.

The last few months in Minas Gerais politics have a sense of déjà vu for voters and citizens of Minas Gerais, as the (P)MDB is setting the same trap for Pimentel that dominated the national scene in 2015: threatening the governor with impeachment, based on extremely weak grounds, if they even exist, to demand from the head of the Executive branch and candidate for re-election two places on the ticket in the Senate race, in addition to the vice-governor's position. According to the MDB, President Dilma Rousseff, who is returning to the state after a long career in Rio Grande do Sul and after being removed from the presidency by a coup d'état, would stop running for senator to try to become a congresswoman and thus favor, in the proportional vote, the MDB members who participated in the fateful April 2016 election more than the PT itself.

If the price demanded by the MDB for Pimentel's support seems high to the PT's state executive committee, it is even more displeasing to the left-wing electorate in the state, given that the governor already faces reluctance from this electorate by denying raises to teachers during his administration, benefiting military police officers instead, in addition to other unpopular and contested measures, such as arrangements to favor mining companies, even two years after the Mariana disaster. The argument from the Tiradentes Palace, of course, is the need to adapt to the financial crisis and the urgency of governability.

In this sense, betting on the unfeasibility of an impeachment in the middle of an election year, in which state deputies could pay the price of repeating 2016 already under the negative recall of the pathetic vote in Brasília, Pimentel must move in the direction that the left expects. The rapprochement with the state PCdoB, reported by Estado de Minas this Sunday, after a meeting between the governor and the state leader of the party, Wadson Ribeiro, could pave the way for Dilma's Senate seat, accompanied by the communist Jô Morais, a historical activist and federal deputy for Minas Gerais.

This possibility frustrates the ambitions of former mayor of Juiz de Fora, Bruno Siqueira, who took leave of his position to run for the Senate on the state government's ticket, as well as that of the president of the ALMG (Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais), Adalclever Lopes, who sought the other seat, possibly placing deputy Sávio Souza Cruz as his running mate on the PT-PMDB ticket.

The price, indeed very high, would weaken the government's relationship with its base in a way similar to the liberal shift threatened by Dilma at the beginning of her second term. In his accurate assessment, Pimentel could return to the model that launched his political career, inheriting the mayoralty of Belo Horizonte from the then-mayor, Célio de Castro, who was on leave due to health problems, and continue a project of social welfare and decentralization of the economy that made him one of the most recognized and approved mayors in the country. Today, after missteps such as alliances with Aécio Neves and bargains with the PMDB, Pimentel seeks Dilma's support as a foundation for his break with the coup forces and return to the left's agenda.

Who would dare to depose, today, after the failure of the coup, the government that has Dilma as its main electoral asset? And how would the governor, in turn, dare to contradict the agendas of the left, having as his main guarantor the president deposed by the darkest wing of the right-wing forces in the country?

Pimentel relies on this set of factors to try and regain the trust of his most traditional voters, betting on the economic frustration of the middle class and the crumbling of the PSDB in the state to guarantee a comfortable vote in segments less inclined towards the PT's (Workers' Party) agenda.

Political analysis is a reading of the moment. Everything can change, and the bargaining power of the MDB, which holds a majority in the Assembly and controls most of the municipalities in a state with 844 cities, cannot be ignored. However, in principle, a scenario favorable to the left is emerging in the second largest electoral college in the country, which could also be decisive on the national stage.