"Programmatic debate should guide the relationship with PSB"

247 - The PT National Directorate issued a statement this Monday (23) presenting its position regarding the departure of the PSB from President Dilma Rousseff's government. According to the PT, the party should maintain the positions it holds in the States governed by the PSB, provided there is "compatibility of programs" between the two parties. 

In the statement, the caption says that "positions are always available" to governors and that "programmatic debate should prevail" both in states governed by the PSB and in PT administrations of which the socialists are a part, such as Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul.

The PT (Workers' Party) also states that in both the first and second rounds of the 2014 elections, "the contest will place the parties in two distinct camps: one represented by the advances promoted by the governments of Lula and Dilma, and the other represented by the governments dominated by the PSDB, DEM, and PPS." In this sense, the document says, the PT "hopes that the PSB will remain aligned with the project of change that is underway in the country."

Below is the full statement:

The National Executive Committee of the PT (Workers' Party), meeting in São Paulo on September 23, 2013, regarding the decision of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) to withdraw from the federal government, decides:

1) to reaffirm that both now and in the 2014 elections, the same dispute over projects that marked the elections of 2002, 2006 and 2010 is at stake;

2) that, therefore, in both the first and second rounds, the contest will place the parties in two distinct camps: one represented by the advances promoted by the governments of Lula and Dilma, and the other represented by the governments dominated by the PSDB, DEM, and PPS;

3) In this sense, we hope that the PSB will remain committed to the project of change that is underway in the country;

4) Where the PT has decided to participate in governments led by the PSB, as well as where the PSB participates in governments led by the PT, programmatic debate should prevail, maintaining the guideline that positions are always available;

5) We instruct our municipal and state directorates, as well as our parliamentary groups, to strengthen the popular democratic field, which in 2014 should re-elect our comrade Dilma as president.

São Paulo, September 23, 2013.
National Executive Committee of the PT (Workers' Party)