Along with Ciro, Tarso advocates for "a new political front".

Marco Weissheimer, from South21 

Former governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Tarso Genro, received a visit last Tuesday (21) from the former governor of Ceará and pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic for the PDT, Ciro Gomes, who fulfilled a political agenda in Porto Alegre and São Borja at the beginning of the week. Tarso denied that one of the topics of conversation was the composition of a ticket for the 2018 presidential elections. “To speak, at this moment, of a Lula-Ciro ticket, or vice versa, Ciro-Tarso, or vice versa, or any other, is totally out of touch with reality. Moreover, in my opinion, it is a demonstration that this person who, at this moment, speaks of a ticket, is totally out of touch with reality and has not understood the gravity of the situation we are living through,” said the former governor and former Minister of Justice to Sul21.

Tarso Genro stated that, at this moment, he is dedicating himself to "working, outside of any spotlight, for a new political front, without projecting any issue of an electoral nature." "I am doing this," he added, "without contradicting any PT (Workers' Party) regulations, but in parallel to its leadership." "I think, today, that it is more important to do work that relates to the entire left and the democratic and progressive center, without disdaining the PT, than to try to advance an agenda within the PT, for which it did not show itself, during the Dilma government, prepared to confront it," he noted.

Assumptions for a new political front

The former governor of Rio Grande do Sul also argued that the new political front being debated "cannot assume, in relation to 2018, or even before, that the PT (Workers' Party) must necessarily be at the head of the ticket, as this is a hegemonic view that, by itself, dismantles the concept of a Front and subjects potential allies to an already closed position of a single Party." According to Tarso Genro, it is natural for each party to have its own candidates and aspirations, but "this must be put on the table at the appropriate time, to determine, among other things, which is the best candidate not only in electoral terms, but also the best to ensure the fulfillment of a government program that will pull us out of the crisis and confront rent-seeking, in an extremely aggressive phase of financial capital on a global scale."

Tarso expressed his satisfaction with Ciro Gomes' visit, defining him as a great political figure in the country. He highlighted that he worked with Ciro in Lula's first government and recalled some joint actions they undertook. "He provided excellent collaboration for my work in the first phase of the National Economic and Social Development Council (Conselhão), especially regarding the implementation of the Furnas Basin surroundings project, which triggered a series of sanitation and housing works in the region." Furthermore, he observed that they always shared a very similar viewpoint in their criticism of the rentier model, arguing that it is only possible to overcome it through economic growth, industrialization with environmental sustainability, and income generation, not through recession and unemployment. "Ciro also helped me a great deal in pressuring President Dilma's government to authorize the vote on the public debt restructuring project, later regulated in a way that partially nullified its effects, as is being seen even within Temer's interim government," Tarso added.

"We don't talk about succession."

“We are not talking about succession at the federal level, but we are talking about blocking the impeachment of the president and starting to work on a new political front for the future, involving parties, party factions, personalities, and civil society institutions, to think about a new type of coalition capable of promoting true political reform and governing with a bold program for the country's economic and social recovery,” reported the former Minister of Justice. This front, he assured, would have a programmatic character, without depending on political opportunism and oligarchic regionalism to govern. “With a Congress like this, the product of an outdated and archaic political system, nobody can govern with seriousness and public responsibility.”

Tarso Genro and Ciro Gomes also discussed the coup against President Dilma Rousseff and its consequences. According to Tarso, "the rentier liberal right, united with the media oligopoly, did not promote the coup to combat corruption." "The fight against corruption was a tool of political seduction, meticulously used to deepen the austerity measures, under the command of the most denounced and investigated faction, which was in the Dilma government, in conjunction with the most investigated and denounced faction of the liberal opposition." In the former governor's assessment, even with political distortions, judicial processes like Lava Jato could have positive effects on the country in the future, provided that political reform is carried out and corporate financing of campaigns and parties is definitively eliminated. "That's how you attack the sources of the construction and reproduction of the crimes we are seeing today. If this doesn't happen, corruption will continue, in an even more complex and sophisticated way than now," he concluded.