Aécio: "It's time for Minas Gerais to lead Brazil"
A senator from the PSDB party adopted the role of a presidential candidate at a meeting of the PSDB in Minas Gerais: “Enough of the PT. Enough of fallacies. Enough of corruption.” In the audience, about a thousand pre-candidates for mayor from the party in the interior of the state chanted: “Aécio for president”; note: Dilma is also from Minas Gerais.
Minas 247 - The setting was the Mercury, a sophisticated hotel in the south-central region of Belo Horizonte. There, around 1,5 PSDB militants were participating in the party's state meeting, held this Friday. Pre-candidates for the October elections awaited an opportunity to appear before state leaders such as Governor Antonio Anastasia, the president of the Legislative Assembly, Dinis Pinheiro, or the vice-governor, Alberto Pinto Coelho, of the PP.
But the real attention was focused on Senator Aécio Neves. He knew it. To shouts of "Aécio for president," the former governor embraced the role of a presidential candidate as perhaps never before.
“It’s time for Minas Gerais to lead Brazil,” said Aécio, to the delight of the PSDB members present. “Enough of the PT. Enough of fallacies. Enough of corruption,” declared the PSDB presidential candidate. Later, speaking to the press as he left the meeting, he again launched barbs at the PT: “The PT is a party of little generosity.” He continued along these lines when speaking about the testimony of the racketeer Carlos Cachoeira this week in the CPI. “I found it strange that the former Minister of Justice of the PT was sitting there, corroborating that absolutely pathetic scene.”
But still true to his Minas Gerais style, Aécio avoided saying whether he was launching his pre-campaign for the presidency there. "Before 2014 we have 2012," the senator said, referring to this year's municipal elections. But he didn't need to say anything more.
His latest speeches, more direct in their criticism of Dilma Rousseff's government, show that he is a strong candidate for the presidency. Once again, he defended the period of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's rule. "We are still living today with the PSDB's macroeconomic agenda, the agenda of the beginning of income transfer programs, the agenda of federalism," he declared.
Aécio knows the difficulty of surpassing a president with high popularity, in addition to his political godfather, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the most popular politician in the country. But Aécio has already confided to close friends that he will hardly be able to avoid running for the top job in 2014 – it's the option to become nationally known.
The fiery speeches at the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) meeting in Minas Gerais demonstrated this. Aécio Neves is already speaking like a candidate for 2014. And he's not talking about a return to the Tiradentes Palace in Belo Horizonte.