According to Tarso, Campos' candidacy is taking votes away from the PSDB.
According to the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, the PSB's potential entry into the presidential race would be a tactical mistake: "It's difficult today to form a third way between what Fernando Henrique, Alckmin, and Serra represented and what Lula and Dilma represent," he says, defending that his "esteemed friend" from Pernambuco should be the candidate for the base starting in 2015; with a discourse of renewal, the PT member is working to find a candidate to run for leadership of the PT.
RS 247 - The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Tarso Genro (PT), said in an interview with the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that a candidacy of Eduardo Campos (PSB) for the Presidency next year would be a "tactical mistake". According to the former Minister of Justice in Lula's government, the governor of Pernambuco should maintain his support for Dilma in 2014 and only then, from 2015 onwards, be brought to the forefront of the allied base.
Tarso understands that the national scenario maintains the polarization between PT (Workers' Party) and PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) members and that an alternative outside of one of these camps would not be viable: "It is difficult today to constitute a third way between what Fernando Henrique, Alckmin and Serra represented and what Lula and Dilma represent. The PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) is oblivious to this," the PT member told Folha.
For Tarso, a candidacy by Eduardo, whom he referred to as an "esteemed friend," would only take votes away from the PSDB. The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, however, considers that every serious party has the right and duty to aspire to be in government. The PT member suggests a medium-term plan to the PSB starting in 2015: a conversation between parties in the allied base about a government program and the project for the 2018 presidential election.
Tarso, who has been promoting a discourse of renewal since the so-called mensalão scandal in 2005 (he was the president of the PT at the time of the crisis), is orchestrating a candidacy within the PT to challenge the faction of the party's current president, Rui Falcão, in the November election.
He says the goal is to "redefine" the party for the period following a possible second term for Dilma. He says his group advocates, among other things, debates on the "democratization" of the media.