Marta recalls her 31% and reaffirms her candidacy.
Despite pressure to pave the way for Minister Fernando Haddad's candidacy for Mayor of São Paulo, the PT senator highlights voting intention polls and maintains her position: "I am a candidate and I am where I have always been."
Senator Marta Suplicy denied today that she has given up on running for mayor of São Paulo within the PT party. She stressed that she will continue to participate in the party's zonal meetings and recalled that in one of the scenarios of the latest Datafolha poll, released in September, she scored 31% of voting intentions. In that projection, the eventual PSDB candidate would be the current state Secretary of the Environment, Bruno Covas. "I am a candidate and I am where I have always been, visiting my party's zonal meetings, with my party's activists," she stated.
The Workers' Party member, however, was evasive when asked if she intends to take her candidacy all the way, that is, until the holding of a primary process. "I am where I have always been," replied the pre-candidate, who, faced with the journalists' insistence, ended the interview. The senator also stressed that her eventual candidacy is based on the Workers' Party's activism and the population of São Paulo. Marta participated today in the 3rd Regional Meeting of Presidents of the Women Lawyers' Commission of São Paulo and Greater São Paulo, promoted by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB).
The PT's pre-candidate had a meeting scheduled for today with some of her allies, but canceled it yesterday. According to PT members, the meeting was to discuss her potential withdrawal from the 2012 election. The name of the Minister of Education, Fernando Haddad, who has the backing of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been gaining strength, even among Marta's allies. In their assessment, her insistence on participating in the election could further strain the senator's relationship with the former president, who, in a meeting, already stated that it would be better for the party if Marta remained in the Federal Senate.
Haddad's allies have even argued that President Dilma Rousseff should discuss the matter with Marta Suplicy, which, according to supporters, should happen next week. They believe the senator would only withdraw from the race if she were directly requested to do so by the president, in the name of governability in the National Congress. Last week, allies of the pre-candidate began a movement to form a pro-Marta front, which would have the support of pre-candidates Jilmar Tatto and Carlos Zarattini. However, the federal deputies did not want to give up their candidacies in favor of the senator.