Former Brazilian President (2003-2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (right) and former Governor of Sao Paulo Geraldo Alckmin pose at a meeting of their parties, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and the Workers’ Party (PT) in Sao Paulo the Hand , Brazil, on April 08, 2022. Photo: AFP.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this Friday nominated centrist Geraldo Alckmin as the vice presidential candidate in the formula that will likely see October’s elections pitted against Jair Bolsonaro.
The appointment of Alckmin, Lula’s former political rival, came amid an alliance between the left leader’s Labor Party (PT) and the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), which the center politician recently joined.
“We need Alckmin’s experience and my experience to fix Brazil,” Lula told reporters at an event in Sao Paulo.
“I am sure that the Labor Party will approve his name as running mate,” said former metallurgist Alckmin.
The presidential election is expected to be polarized between Lula, who is leading voting intentions, and far-right President Jair Bolsonaro without a strong “third way.”
The former president has not yet confirmed his candidacy for his third term, but he has increasingly shown himself in that role in the pre-campaign.
The official deadline for registering candidatures begins on July 20th.
Alckmin, co-founder of Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) and a member of the PSB since March, faced Lula in the 2006 election and lost by a wide margin in the second ballot.
Today, who was governor of Sao Paulo between 2001-2006 and 2011-2018, Lula is committed to expanding his electoral base.
Alckmin, 69, vowed to “join the effort” to “rebuild” and “re-democratize” the country “in the face of a government that is attacking democracy and institutions”.
The vice-presidential candidate could help attract centrist voters already angered by the corruption scandals that marked the PT’s final years in government (2003-2016).
“Two forces with different projects and the same principles can join forces at a time when people need it,” Lula reasoned, highlighting the “civilized” rivalry of the past.
“Today we have a policy of hate, where the opponent is the enemy, and it’s not about winning, it’s about falling,” Lula lamented, referring to the Bolsonaro government.
A Datafolha poll released in March shows the former president leading the race for the Planalto Palace with 43% of intentions to vote in the first round on October 2, followed by Bolsonaro with 26%.
(With information from AFP)