With Haddad as the vice-presidential candidate, PSB shelve the "Recife project".
The governor of Pernambuco and national president of the PSB party, Eduardo Campos, will nominate federal deputy Luíza Erundina as the running mate of the Workers' Party (PT) candidate for mayor of São Paulo. With this alliance, the socialists would commit to abandoning the idea of launching their own candidate in the Pernambuco capital, aligning themselves with Senator Humberto Costa (PT). The agreement was celebrated with former president Lula.
PE247 – Following the nomination of Senator Humberto Costa as the PT's candidate for Mayor of Recife, the Governor of Pernambuco and national president of the PSB, Eduardo Campos, is expected to signal, in the coming days, the nomination of federal deputy and former mayor Luíza Erundina as the socialist candidate for vice-mayor alongside the PT candidate for Mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad. Campos is reportedly only waiting for a positive signal from the allied party in municipalities where the party leadership has committed to supporting PSB candidates.
If the nomination of federal congresswoman Luíza Erundina as the running mate of former minister Fernando Haddad is confirmed, the PSB's project of fielding its own candidate in Recife will once again be shelved. Yesterday, Governor Eduardo Campos dismissed four secretaries, including Daniel Cabral (Cities), so that they could become options for the Recife election.
Shortly after the PT announced Humberto Costa as its candidate in Recife, as Eduardo Campos had agreed with former president Lula, the socialist Márcio França resigned from his position as head of the Tourism department in the Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) government. However, the formalization of the PSB's support for the PT candidate in the capital of São Paulo was still pending.
The major obstacle to the consolidation of the alliance between the PT (Workers' Party) and the PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) is the resistance from local PT factions, which are still hoping to field their own candidates. Among the cities being negotiated are Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte, and Franca, in the interior of São Paulo state.
Last week, when rumors surfaced that the PSB might launch a candidacy for mayor of São Paulo, Luiza Erundina herself stated that her party did not have the structure for an undertaking of that magnitude.