The PSB's candidacy in Recife could be decided this Wednesday.
Former President Lula and Governor Eduardo Campos (PE) will discuss an alliance between the PT and PSB parties in the Pernambuco capital; the conversation should also address the announcement of the socialists' support for Haddad's candidacy in São Paulo, who also hopes for an alliance with Maluf's PP party.
PE247 – Governor Eduardo Campos (PSB) and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will finalize, this Wednesday the 13th, the possibility of the socialists launching their own candidate in Recife. The meeting, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, is the last step agreed upon between the allies to define the direction of the Popular Front of Pernambuco in the state capital. Campos is expected to demonstrate his complete dissatisfaction with the way the PT has handled the Recife succession. According to behind-the-scenes information, the governor believes that the PT allowed the imbroglio to run rampant for too long and, now that they have nominated Senator Humberto Costa as a consensus candidate, instability remains within their ranks.
On the socialist side, there's a theory that Recife wasn't part of the agreement for the PSB to join former minister Fernando Haddad's campaign in the São Paulo mayoral race. It's rumored that former president Lula left the governor free to make his own decision regarding Recife, as long as he allowed the PT to work towards building unity in the Pernambuco capital. This, to date, has not happened.
However, behind the scenes within the Workers' Party (PT), there are those who are adamant about the agreements made between Lula and Eduardo. According to PT sources, Recife and São Paulo are the pillars of the party, and the gestures made by the party—the nomination of Marcelo Lacerda's (PSB) running mate in Belo Horizonte, the freedom given to the governor of Ceará, Ciro Gomes (PSB), to break with the mayor of Fortaleza, Luizianne Lins, and overtures in two more cities in the interior of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Norte—would be sufficient to maintain the alliance in the Pernambuco capital.
View from the outside
Amid all this, Folha de São Paulo columnist Vera Magalhães stated that Governor Eduardo Campos will “abandon” the PT in Recife, launching his own candidate. She, who recalled that the socialist dismissed four of his trusted secretaries last week to serve as the party’s option for the Recife election, also stated that the announcement will come this Tuesday (12).
Trash
Besides discussing Recife, the meeting between Lula and Eduardo will serve to finalize the date for the announcement of PSB's support for Fernando Haddad's candidacy. In addition to the socialists, the PT also hopes to formalize an alliance with the PP, of federal deputy Paulo Maluf (SP). All this in less than a week.