This content was published on May 23, 2022 – 17:11
Augustine of Grace
São Paulo, May 23 (EFE) .- The political polarization that Brazil is experiencing before the elections of next October became even more acute when it was known this Monday the resignation of the electoral contest of the social democrat Joao Doria, until recently governor of Sao Paulo.
Doria, 64, a businessman involved in politics, had become from the post of governor of São Paulo one of the biggest critics of the presidential administration of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
Despite the poor data that the polls gave him, he decided to launch himself into the presidential contest to occupy a position of the so-called “third way”, between Bolsonaro and the leftist and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
But this Monday, in an unexpected act that lasted twelve minutes and ended in tears, Doria threw in the towel by announcing that he will not stand for the October 2 elections, “with a wounded heart, but with a light soul,” according to what he pointed out. .
Doria, who held the highest administrative position in the most populous state and with the most thriving economy in Brazil, was governor of São Paulo for three years, until last April 1, a position he left due to legal imperative and to turn to the electoral race. .
Aware of the polarization between Lula and Bolsonaro, Doria stressed in his message that the country “needs an alternative to offer voters who do not want extremes.”
But his nomination as presidential candidate of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which he won in the primaries on November 21, has not only found low support in the polls, but also internal differences.
“Today, May 23, I serenely understand that I am not the chosen one by the PSDB leadership” and “I accept this reality with my head held high,” Doria said before a group of supporters and accompanied on the platform by his wife and other political leaders. .
The hopes of alternative ways to the duel between Bolsonaro and Lula are now directed towards Senator Simone Tebet, presidential candidate of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), also supported in a veiled way by the Citizens party and who in the polls is even below Doria.
One of the most recent polls, by the National Confederation of Carriers (CNT), gave Doria 3.1% of the vote and Tebet even less, 2.3%, both very far from Lula’s 40.6% and of 32% of Bolsonaro.
Doria announced his withdrawal one day before a meeting called by the PSDB leadership to study the prospects for the October electoral contest, although as of today’s announcement the options point to Senator Tebet.
“We have an understanding of dialogue with Citizenship and with the MDB and we are going to take a step forward now,” said the president of the PSDB, Bruno Araújo, who was present at the act in which Doria announced that he was withdrawing.
In this dialogue it is a question of defining “not only the name,” said Araújo, “and the name of Simone is a name” that is managed in favor of a single candidacy of these “third way” parties.
“As president of the PSDB, I would very much like us to have our own candidacy -he added-, but there is something greater than all that, there is something greater than the will of João Doria or my will. The will is now collective”.
Leaks in the local media maintain that Doria’s party sees Senator Tebet as more potential and that there is even the possibility that this Tuesday it will be officially announced that she will become the sole candidate of the three groups mentioned.
In his farewell, Doria stressed that he considered himself “a man who respects common sense, dialogue and balance”, qualities that, as he implied, recommended him to abandon the electoral race.
“I have always sought and will continue to seek consensus, even if it is against my personal will,” he added. EFE
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