Edivan responds to Jackson; the clash will continue until October 2014.
In the clash between "new vs. old," the president of the PTB party called the vice-governor "outdated"; Jackson retorted: "better outdated than a cheat"; Edivan countered, saying that the PMDB leader has already suffered through several elections and called him "cunning"; until the election results, there will hardly be a truce in this clash, which is of little benefit to the people.
Valter Lima, from Sergipe – The exchange of barbs and accusations between political groups in Sergipe seems far from over. The 2014 election is the focus of all of them, so it's impossible to expect any "ceasefire" before October of next year. After the near truce surrounding Proinveste, sanctioned earlier this week, the friction has intensified. Now, with the participation of Vice-Governor Jackson Barreto (PMDB), who will attempt to succeed Marcelo Déda (PT). He has joined Senator Valadares (PSB) and Federal Deputy Mendonça Prado (DEM), already in routine opposition to Senator Eduardo Amorim (PSC) and the group he leads with his brother, the state president of the PTB, Edivan Amorim.
And the core of the most recent disagreement was precisely because of one of the opposing discourses that should be used in the campaign. It is the infamous “new versus old”, with Eduardo trying to establish himself as the newcomer and treating Jackson as the one who is outdated. And this was the adjective that Edivan used on Thursday (16) to describe the vice-governor, who did not like it and did not leave the president of the PTB without a response.
He told him that “it was better to be overtaken than to be a cheat.” He also accused him of “having a sentence that condemns him to seven years in prison, in the Banestado case, in Paraná.” Edivan didn't like what he read and returned to the spotlight more intensely: “Until he was electrocuted in the Energipe privatization process by Albano Franco, whom he treated with crude adjectives, he was a very funny guy. Many people laughed and found his mockery of his opponents amusing. I, personally, always thought it was very pretentious. But over time, Jackson Barreto ended up suffering successive defeats. He wanted to be a senator, he wasn't elected. He sought to revive the PMDB, and all he achieved was half a dozen mayoralties. In 2010, he tried to elect a close ally as a state deputy, but the guy suffered a second alternate position. Now he desperately wants to take control of the state treasury and only hears 'no' as an answer. These things exasperate anyone.”
And he hit even harder: “He knows very well that five years ago I was unanimously acquitted by the Superior Court of Justice in the Banestado case. In fact, the bank was forced to pay me compensation for moral damages, not only for the stress suffered during the process, but also because the baseless accusation harmed a business that employed hundreds of workers. Unlike Jackson Barreto, I have a clean record. While he faces a mountain of lawsuits, most of them for acts of dishonesty and cunning with public money, I have none.” And, to finish, he even called Jackson “cunning.”
Certainly, Edivan will get a response. And another chapter will be written in what promises to be the longest recent political battle in Sergipe politics. It could even lead to surprising alliances. The anticipation of the electoral debate, long since established and so present through party advertisements on TV and prepared speeches on Sergipe radio, shows that the 2014 election will not be off the agenda. It's a shame that the debate is almost exclusively based on criticism, accusations, and purely political battles. The people of Sergipe, the prospective candidates, deserve better!