'Marta's boycott could lead to her ostracism,' says professor.
Political scientist Cláudio Couto from GV believes that the PT (Workers' Party) will shift the blame for Fernando Haddad's defeat in São Paulo onto the senator. And even in case of victory, she will be vilified.
247 – In an article for Folha, political scientist and professor of Public Administration at FGV-SP, Cláudio Gonçalves Couto, says that Marta will be "bashed" by the PT in case of defeat or even victory in São Paulo. Read:
If everything goes wrong in Fernando Haddad's campaign for mayor of São Paulo, culminating in his defeat, the PT already knows who to blame.
If all goes well and Haddad is elected mayor, the PT already knows who to trample on. In both cases, that person is Marta Suplicy.
It is evident that the former mayor is unhappy with being passed over in the selection of the Workers' Party candidate, for whom she saw herself as a natural choice - just as Aécio Neves was for the PSDB in the presidential election, in Fernando Henrique's view.
Marta, however, bears little resemblance to Aécio in terms of this "naturalness." She is to the São Paulo City Hall and to the PT more or less what former governor José Serra is to the Presidency and the PSDB.
In both cases, the candidates see themselves as the obvious choice, do not recognize fellow party members of their caliber, and think more about their personal project than that of the party.
The similarity, however, ends there. Not only because the disputes are of different sizes, but also because the PT and PSDB are very different.
While in the PSDB the Serra faction managed to impose itself on the party machine, leading to yet another setback in 2010 (and continues to encourage a new adventure for 2014), in the PT the weight of the party organization made itself felt in defining the outcome of the election.
Someone might retort that it's the weight of Lula's political bossism. There's a mistake in that assessment.
Although Lula's endorsement was crucial in the PT's choice of Haddad, it operates within a very different organizational context and with a meaning distinct from that of the PSDB. The PT is a party where the logic of organization tends to prevail over political bossism.
Lula's endorsement works in the candidate selection process because it aligns with the organization's broader, long-term interests.
In such a scenario, if Marta's pout persists, it will likely lead to her being ostracized internally. Organizations this densely populated don't usually let that kind of individualism go unpunished.