Campos will tell Lula that he will be a candidate in 2014.
The governor of Pernambuco and national president of the PSB party, Eduardo Campos, is only waiting for the date of his meeting with the former president to inform him: he will not be able to support President Dilma in her 2014 reelection bid, as the party's desire to launch him as a presidential candidate is irreversible. The party will also tell Dilma that she is free to remove her ministers.
247 – It's official: the governor of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos (PSB), who until now was a questionable name in the 2014 presidential race, will be launched as a candidate. This is according to a report published by the newspaper. The Globe This Wednesday the 13th, the news will be given to former president Lula by him personally, at their meeting in the coming weeks. Campos is only waiting for confirmation of the date from Lula's staff.
The information had already been reported in recent days by allies of Campos, who is the national president of the PSB. To 247Socialist leaders even went so far as to say that the party had already prepared a candidacy strategy for the governor: he would run as a candidate and, if defeated in the first round, would side with President Dilma Rousseff in the second round of the election. Later, the party leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Congressman Beto Albuquerque, confirmed the fact.
Until then, Campos' name had been considered as a possibility to occupy the vice-presidency alongside Dilma or to support the president in her reelection bid, since the party is part of the governing coalition. The possibility of the vice-presidency, orchestrated by Lula to prevent the governor's candidacy, irritated PSB leaders and Campos himself. "It seemed like Lula was doing the following: I'm going to give that boy a candy to calm him down. It's not like that. Eduardo has nothing to gain by not running in 2014. It's a point of no return," declared a close interlocutor, according to O Globo.
From now on
For now, the plan is to remain part of the governing coalition throughout this year, without addressing the issue immediately. However, as it controls two ministries, the PSB will make it clear to the president that she is free to replace the heads of these ministries in her mini-ministerial reshuffle. Currently, the socialists hold the ministries of National Integration, with Fernando Bezerra Coelho, and Ports, with Leônidas Cristino. "We haven't discussed this matter at any point. Neither internally nor in conversations with the president," said Eduardo Campos, according to the Rio de Janeiro newspaper.
Candidate's agenda
The Campos campaign caravan is scheduled to debut on April 9th, when the governor will speak to approximately five thousand business leaders at an event in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. His presentation will address criticisms of current economic policy and propose solutions. In addition to the meeting with the business community, his agenda to make himself known throughout the country is extensive: he will then travel to two states in the Northeast and one in the Central-West, where he will be honored and organize party events.