‘Progressive Faria Lima’ promotes dinners to bring undecided people closer to Lula

Executives, CEOs and lawyers have promoted a series of weekly meetings to bring the Lula-Alckmin ticket closer to the business community, the financial market and representatives who are traditionally resistant to voting for the PT. The debates have 50 to 100 people a night and take place at the organizers’ house, who have been mobilizing for months to vote for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

In the guest list, the predilection is for undecided and for voters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) willing to talk – some attended dinners accompanied by the Sheet. The idea for Lula’s electorate is that they leave events more willing to actively campaign.

This Sunday (23), a week before the vote, the group will meet Fernando Haddad (PT), who is running for the Government of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), vice president on Lula’s ticket, federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP). ) and former minister Marina Silva (Rede-SP), also elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

The articulators of this edition, lawyers Paulo Pereira and Mís Moreno intend to bring together around 200 people to give breath to Haddad’s campaign in the final stretch. A video of Miguel Reale Jr., author of the impeachment request of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), declaring support for Lula will be shown.

One of the main objectives of these conversations, according to Pereira, is to open a channel with the electorate that does not have immediate identification with the progressive camp and to show that, in the event of a PT victory, “there is no madness”.

“What concerns us is the direction of the policy, and we want to avoid institutional setbacks”, he says. “People leave these meetings more relaxed because they understand that Lula is attentive to issues that the market is aware of, such as fiscal policy, responsibility with interest and exchange rates.”

The meeting with Haddad this Sunday will be attended by many members of the PSDB, such as former secretaries of Bruno Covas, José Serra and Alckmin, in addition to former ministers of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The mobilization group for these events is diffuse, non-partisan and has several subgroups, which are linked by the progressive agendas in common. The members helped to promote, for example, the cocktail with former presidential candidate Simone Tebet (MDB) at the residence of the couple Teresa and Candido Bracher, linked to Itaú, on Monday (17), which was attended by around 650 people, many of whom never voted for the PT.

In the second round, executives from the financial market intensified the meetings, leading to discussions with political scientists, such as Fernando Abrucio and Mathias Alencastro, columnist for Sheetand economist Gabriel Galípolo, former president of Banco Fator and who has been seen as a link between the PT campaign and the market.

In smaller formats, these meetings have been held since 2016, when the campaign was for Haddad in the City of São Paulo, and they gained even more traction in 2020, during the race of Guilherme Boulos (PSOL-SP) for mayor.. It was from then on that senior executives of national and foreign banks, who prefer not to disclose their name because political action is not related to their corporations, began to participate.

After the meetings with Boulos, the group noticed the positive effect of bringing together conflicting sectors, such as a leader of the MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto) and managers of Faria Lima. In one of the meetings at the time, Boulos thanked him for the invitation and said he understood how difficult it was for the financial market to talk to him. He explained, however, that he would also have to give explanations to the people from the settlement, who would certainly be terrified by his proximity to Faria Lima.

In the last cycle of talks, political dinners were attended by Aloizio Mercadante, one of the coordinators of Lula’s campaign, federal deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), Marcelo Freixo, candidate for the Government of Rio de Janeiro by the PSB, the federal deputy elected Sônia Guajajara (PSOL-SP), federal deputy Paulo Teixeira (PT-SP) and other candidates for state and federal deputies.

The reporter was at two of those dinners in the last few weeks. In one of them, with a menu served by chef Bel Coelho, the guests for exhibitions were Galípolo and economist and political scientist Ricardo Sennes, with comments from USP professor Rogério Arantes and Alencastro, researcher at Cebrap (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning). .

Criticizing the PT, Sennes defended the institutions and said that, despite disagreeing with PT projects, the party’s governments never left democracy at risk.

The threat of autocracy in Bolsonaro’s second term was a recurring fear in the conversations. On one occasion, Arantes openly asked for a vote for Lula, which caused indignation in one of those present. The man, who said he was not a bolsonarista, accused the PT of corruption and left after igniting the debate and outraging most of those present.

In the second meeting, Galípolo and political scientist Fernando Abrucio, a professor at FGV, talked for more than three hours with the public.

Abrucio presented a political overview of Bolsonaro’s rise and highlighted that the international community seems more concerned about Brazil than Brazilians. “We will have an international response of greater distance or greater proximity after the election,” he said. “Brazil could become more like Lebanon than Hungary, as we are moving towards religious sectarianism.”

Galípolo, in turn, explained that demands from the financial market, such as fiscal responsibility and the fight against inflation, for example, are being contemplated by Lula’s campaign according to the conversations he had with the team.

The command of Petrobras was one of the highlights of his speech. “We need to think of Petrobras as an energy company. For me, the idea of ​​subsidizing and forming a permanent fossil fuel is offensive. It needs to be a transition company,” he said. The theme sensitized representatives of foreign banks, who indicated the need for Brazil to commit to clean energy.

Among the major concerns of these meetings are the erosion of democracy, the dismantling of environmental policy and Brazil’s lack of preparation for new energy matrices.