"I don't need to participate in a misguided campaign."
Senator Marta Suplicy lets the ship sail; the candidate is the one who needs to connect with the public, that can't be transferred, she tells columnist Dora Kramer, from Estado; page turned on the chance of replacing Haddad; "that's not going to happen nor do I have any intention of returning to the race"
247 – Come back, Marta, come back! Forget it. After a Twitter campaign criticizing candidate Fernando Haddad, Senator Marta Suplicy, in an interview with columnist Dora Kramer of Estadão, definitively threw in the towel. Without a single gesture within the party of attention to her analyses and positions, as Dora points out – which have proven to be correct – Marta doesn't believe in replacing the candidate and is stepping aside. "Page turned," she says. Upon leaving, she leaves another direct message for those who want her carrying Haddad's banner: "The candidate is the one who needs to connect with the public; you can't transfer that responsibility," she argues.
Below is Dora Kramer's column in Estadão:
With tact
Whatever one may say about Senator Marta Suplicy, let there be emphasis on her impertinence, her verbal inadequacy, and her pronounced air of presumption, but let us also acknowledge in her a quality that is scarce in the market: mental insubordination.
He speaks aloud what his PT (Workers' Party) colleagues say in hushed tones, but don't repeat in public for fear of contradicting the commander-in-chief.
When Lula wanted to make Ciro Gomes a candidate for governor of São Paulo, Marta was the only one to voice the majority's dissatisfaction, saying that he had "nothing to do" with the state.
When the former president gave the first signs that he would make Fernando Haddad a candidate for mayor, Marta was vying for the position and doubted it: "Only if it's to lose."
He later warned that José Serra would end up being the PSDB candidate and later rebelled against the alliance with Mayor Gilberto Kassab, considering the possibility "a nightmare".
Two days ago, I said via Twitter that the PT's strategy in the municipal election is wrong and advised Haddad to "wear out his shoe leather" if he wants to succeed.
Marta Suplicy has spoken little, avoided interviews and, above all, shied away from the pressure to immerse herself in the campaign as a kind of ambassador for Haddad to the electorate, especially women and those residing in the city's periphery.
In this vacuum, doubts arise about her willingness to strengthen the Workers' Party team in this election, and there are also rumors that Lula might back down and make her the Workers' Party candidate for mayor.
What is fact and what is fiction? No one is better suited to clarify this than she herself.
"That (Lula's withdrawal) is not going to happen, nor do I intend to return to the race. It's a closed chapter, I've already accepted that I'm not a candidate, but I don't need to participate in a misguided campaign or believe that there are magic solutions because they don't exist," says the senator.
The magic she refers to is the power attributed to her, or to Lula, to make Haddad's candidacy take off. "The candidate is the one who needs to connect with the public; you can't transfer that responsibility," she argues.
She will participate. But only at the right time, from the official start of the campaign or, between now and then, in situations she considers truly important. For example: on the 13th at the inauguration of a Unified Educational Center (CEU) in São Bernardo. "Right now I also have a lot of work as vice-president of the Senate."