'Neither Dilma nor Aécio embody the ideals of PSOL'

Paulo Victor Chagas - Reporter for Agência Brasil 

In the week that parties outside the second round of elections decide on potential support in the race between Dilma Rousseff (PT) and Aécio Neves (PSDB), the fourth-place finisher, Luciana Genro, celebrates the result and considers it "extraordinary." The candidate, who received more than 1,6 million votes (1,55% of the electorate), believes she managed to captivate young people and bring to the electoral debate issues that none of the other candidates raised.

The assessment that the PSOL candidacy emerged from the campaign stronger than it entered, having received some of the votes from those who participated in last year's demonstrations, is shared by political scientist and expert in electoral behavior Leonardo Barreto. According to him, the vote for Luciana came not only from the "radical" but also from a sector of society that is "very mobilized."

The party managed to surpass the number of votes from the last election and increased its representation in the Chamber of Deputies from three to five. Plínio Arruda Sampaio, the party's candidate in 2010, received 0,87% of the vote. Luciana Genro managed to gather almost half the total votes obtained by the eight candidates with the fewest votes (3,68 million).

"The June protests contributed to a stronger process of rejecting politics," assesses Luciana Genro. In an interview with Agência Brasil, she said that this apathy is important at first, but insufficient. The challenge now, for her, is to organize this dissatisfaction with "old politics," income concentration, and precarious public services, and thus move towards a process of affirmation.

According to the founder of PSOL, in addition to the party's economic policies, such as taxation on large fortunes, the causes championed by her candidacy have garnered significant social support. Recalling that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, transgender, and transsexual) pride parades have gathered millions of people, Luciana Genro believes that "no other candidacy has the audacity to put forward in their campaigns" such clear positions as the defense of equal civil marriage for same-sex couples and the criminalization of homophobia.

According to Leonardo Barreto, the candidate targeted specific niches and continued to bet on ideological extremes, such as the more classical left. "Parties that are not competing for victory have greater freedom of discourse and positioning than those that are chasing the median voter. This seems to explain her performance."

Assessing that the main issues presented in her program "will not be resolved by either of the two candidates", Luciana said that the position for the second round will be defined this Wednesday (8) at a meeting of the National Executive. "What we have in consensus is that we will not give any vote to Aécio, which clearly means regression. This does not mean support for Dilma, there are many PSOL voters who will declare a null vote, for example."

The political scientist argues that this null vote is due to the party's strong anti-establishment rhetoric, including opposition to the electoral process. However, in his assessment, "by default," the socialist voters tend to gravitate towards Dilma.

Luciana Genro, who served as a federal deputy between 2003 and 2010, intends to continue fulfilling her role as a public figure and party leader. "To do politics, you don't necessarily need to hold public office. I think the strength I can have is directly related to the strength of PSOL," she assessed, adding that the party's elected deputies will have an important role in continuing to defend the causes she championed during the campaign.

The political scientist believes that, despite not holding office, Luciana Genro will continue to play a role in this scenario. He considers that this more mobilized electorate from the demonstrations brought a persistent agenda to the country, and that Luciana's performance was important in highlighting minority segments that should be valued and are important for democracy.