Jean Paul Prates announces departure from PT and negotiates with MDB and PDT.
The former president of Petrobras says he is leaving the party without bitterness, but demands more democratic processes and warns Lula about the opposition's strategy in 2026.
247 - Former senator and former president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, confirmed, in an interview with CartaCapital published this Sunday (28), who is leaving the Workers' Party after more than a decade of activism. In talks with MDB and PDT, Prates is evaluating which party he will try to run for a Senate seat under in 2026.
According to him, the decision is not directly related to his departure from Petrobras last year, but to what he describes as a "lack of internal participation" in the process of defining PT (Workers' Party) candidates in Rio Grande do Norte.
“I was a senator, I presided over Petrobras, and even then there was no consultation. My point is not to seek space for myself, but to defend that the process of choosing candidates should be participatory, including with the grassroots. I thought that in the PT this would be the rule. Since it wasn't, I'm leaving for another place that is like that,” he declared to CartaCapital.
Prates attributes his departure from Petrobras to "technical disagreements" with ministers Rui Costa (Chief of Staff) and Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy), but assures that he holds no grudges against President Lula. He praises the continuity of the strategy outlined during his administration, but has reservations about some recent decisions by the state-owned company, such as the renewed focus on ethanol and the postponement of offshore wind energy projects.
"Energy policy has turned into a sort of megawatt fair, with lobbyists securing their interests while others try to survive in the shadows," he exclaimed.
Electoral scenario and challenges for Lula
Regarding 2026, Prates believes Lula is the favorite, but warns of the possibility of the opposition launching several candidates to create "cognitive chaos" in the electoral debate. He argues that the government should intelligently plan its support coalition, balancing the demands of the political center and the Centrão (center-right bloc) without yielding to "harmful lobbies."
"Their strategy will probably be to launch five candidates against Lula. That's the big trap they're planning: to argue, argue, and in the end, consider it better to have five people attacking Lula at the same time than one or two," he said.
Prates promises a "peaceful and grateful" departure from the PT, followed by the choice of a new party and, only then, a possible decision about a candidacy.
“I’m not a professional politician. I go into politics because I like it. But political parties need to learn from football [...] It’s not the player who gets called up and decides where he’s going to play. He chooses his profession, whether he wants to play as a goalkeeper, full-back, winger… But the job of selecting the team belongs to the coach,” he summarized.
