Temer: Meeting with allies was marked by 'deep optimism'

Luciano Nascimento - Reporter for Agência Brasil - President Dilma Rousseff, candidate for re-election, yesterday (22), at the Palácio da Alvorada, led the first campaign meeting with the leaders of the parties that form her coalition. The meeting began in the late afternoon and ended around 22 pm.

In addition to Vice President Michel Temer, who heads the PMDB party, the presidents of the PSD, PP, PR, PROS, PDT, PCdoB, and PRB parties participated in the meeting. Upon leaving, Temer said the meeting marked the "launch of the campaign" and that the atmosphere was one of "deep optimism."

"She [Dilma] opened the meeting by saying how pleased she was to have all the party presidents there and that this was the starting point of the election campaign," said Temer, who is running again for the vice-presidential position on the ticket headed by Dilma.

"The first conclusion reached is that, although we have a lot of television time, we all think it's insufficient to demonstrate everything the government has done. The hallmark of this meeting was, precisely, optimism," he added.

According to the vice-president, the meeting also served to discuss the operational aspects of the campaign and to raise awareness among the allied base. He revealed that the meetings should be repeated once a week. At the next meeting, each party president will bring another member of their party to discuss Dilma's presence on state campaign platforms.

Temer commented on the results of the Ibope poll, commissioned by Rede Globo and the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, released today, which shows Dilma with 38% of voting intentions. According to him, the result confirmed the optimism expressed at the meeting. "When we left, we had just seen the Ibope poll, which is very favorable to the president's reelection," he commented.