Marina Silva. What kind of candidate is this?

I was in São Luís do Maranhão giving lectures on political reform when I learned of the change in Marina Silva's campaign coordinator. Then came the news about the desertion of the allied base, the agro-exporters and industrialists, for disagreeing with the agenda and/or discourse of the neo-Pentecostal candidate. After all, what kind of candidate is she?

It's worth remembering that Marina Silva broke with the PT precisely because of the contradictions in its environmental policy. The emphasis on "developmentalism" harmed environmental protection policies. And the late former governor had the prudence to place her as vice-presidential candidate, not at the head of the PSB ticket, anticipating the numerous resistances from his allied base. In truth, it would be one thing to use her, in a mutually convenient agreement, as a qualified campaign worker for the former governor's election. It would be quite another – very different – ​​to place her as the PSB's presidential candidate. This is because the former senator from Acre has nothing to do with the PSB's agenda, neither in form nor content. She is not and never has been a socialist; she is an evangelical Christian. According to the PSB's agenda, she is more aligned with a regulatory, managerial state than with Marina Silva's environmental agenda.

It was predictable that the attempt by the deceased's family to maintain control of the ticket, through Marina Silva's name, would – as is happening now – raise many questions from the former allied base, which joined the succession project in the name of other ideas, another discourse, and another candidate. The name change would not be a mere formality, considering that it concerns a person like the leader of the "Sustainability Network" party. What is happening is the presence of one party within another party, for purely political-electoral convenience.