Dilma will confront Marina and focus on proposals.
In the final stretch, the Workers' Party campaign sees an opportunity to exploit the "Noah's Ark of contradictions" of the PSB presidential candidate, Marina Silva, in an attempt to weaken her opponent in the second round, considering that the coming days are the period in which Brazilians pay the most attention to the election broadcasts; to reach undecided voters, the campaign will also focus on new proposals for a possible second term.
By Jeferson Ribeiro
BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Workers' Party campaign sees room to exploit the "Noah's Ark of contradictions" of PSB presidential candidate Marina Silva, in an attempt to weaken her opponent in the second round, but recognizes limitations in this strategy since there are still undecided voters to win over.
One of Dilma's reelection campaign strategists told Reuters that the PT candidate's electorate will have to grow among undecided voters, so it's impossible to maintain a strategy focused solely on attacks against Marina and her government program. The former senator, Dilma's main opponent, has been the primary target of the PT's advertising campaigns so far.
Since Marina entered the presidential race, Dilma's poll numbers for the first round have fluctuated. However, in second-round simulations, the Workers' Party candidate has recovered some ground in recent polls and is now statistically tied with the PSB candidate.
"Marina is a Noah's Ark of contradictions," said this strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity. In his assessment, Marina changes her mind "all the time" for fear of losing votes, but this is leaving voters with doubts.
"I think it's becoming increasingly evident, and there's a growing number of people looking at Marina with doubt," he assessed.
According to him, Dilma has already recovered the votes she lost to the PSB candidate and now it's time to focus on undecided voters. Therefore, the TV campaign in this final stretch should be more focused on new proposals for a possible second term.
"We're going to win the first round, but we need to build the biggest possible lead for the second round," he added.
The strategy against Marina, however, may also be helping the PSDB presidential candidate, Aécio Neves. He has been targeting his PSB opponent to recover the anti-PT vote and, according to the most recent Ibope poll, he has been the biggest beneficiary of the attacks on Marina.
The candidate from the PSDB party, who fell to third place after Marina Silva entered the race, recovered ground and rose four percentage points in the survey released on Tuesday.
"There are voters who are returning to Aécio because they fear Marina," assessed this strategist for Dilma. But the president's campaign gives the impression of being certain that the second round is decided between Dilma and Marina.
According to the strategist, an "anti-PT and anti-Marina" voter may be emerging. This would prevent a complete migration of votes from Aécio to Marina in the second round.
LABOR RIGHTS
Another campaign source warned, however, that the confrontation with Marina should not take a backseat in this final stretch, because in the last 15 days voters focus on the election campaign and decide their vote. Therefore, criticism now carries more weight in the electorate's choice.
"You don't win an election by sending flowers to your opponent. You have to maintain the criticism and the aggressive tone as well," said this source, also on condition of anonymity.
The latest target of Dilma's campaign is Marina's recent statements about the need to "update labor legislation."
Dilma had already confronted Marina on issues such as oil exploration in the pre-salt layer and the proposal for the formal independence of the Central Bank. In both cases, Dilma's strategy was effective and earned her votes, according to her strategists.
On Wednesday, after meeting with business leaders in Campinas, the president said she would not change labor laws. "Vacation law, 13th-month salary, severance pay, overtime, I won't change that even if the cow coughs," said Dilma. [nL1N0RI1N7]
Although she did not detail what would be updated in labor legislation, Marina's government program is very clear regarding the maintenance of workers' rights.
"Changes in labor laws: modernizing relations between companies and employees to expand protection for workers and new categories; maintaining acquired rights; creating an environment of greater legal certainty," says the text of the PSB program.
To leave no doubt about the issue, on Wednesday Marina said that "workers' rights need to be respected, all their achievements must and need to be respected."