Any politician who wants to be (re)elected in 2026 will have to find the formula to win votes in places like Itaquera. This is all the more true in a country where ultrapolarization has led to the crystallization of political positions in certain regions and social groups, thereby shrinking the regions actually in dispute.
Lula's visit is intended to make it clear that Boulos is now the PT in São Paulo. Why? In 2022, in the capital São Paulo, the president had 53.5% of the vote, while Bolsonaro received 46.5%. Haddad's vote followed Lula's, reaching 54.4% in São Paulo, compared to 45.5% for Tarcísio de Freitas, the current governor, who succeeded Jair.
In the latest Datafolha poll on the election campaign in the capital São Paulo on August 31, Boulos had 32% of voting intentions, followed by Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) with 24%, Tabata Amaral (PSB) with 11%, and Kim Kataguiri (União Brazil), 8%. The margin of error was three points. In other words, Lula still has room to transfer many of the votes cast for him and the PT to his sponsor.
Especially because in 2020, Boulos lost in districts that Lula won: Bruno Covas defeated Boulos in 50 of the 58 electoral zones, including Itaquera and other peripheral regions. Lula won in 35 and Bolsonaro in 23.
There is also the People's Cup.
Most of those present at the opening of the FIFA World Cup on June 12, 2014 in São Paulo could not have imagined that for a month 4,000 families linked to the Homeless Movement (MTST) lived next to the stadium, previously, a large plot of land in nearby. And they had resisted until the government agreed to expropriate the land, which had been unused for 20 years, and earmark it for the construction of housing units.