Minister ‘of the cattle’, Salles had votes in rich and tree-lined neighborhoods of São Paulo

Voters from most of the richest and most leafy neighborhoods in the capital of São Paulo voted expressively for former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles (PL), fourth in the ranking of federal deputies for São Paulo, with 640,000 votes.

Salles left the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in June 2021, after becoming the subject of an investigation by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in an operation by the Federal Police that investigates favoring entrepreneurs in the wood sector. In addition, he also gained fame by speaking during a ministerial meeting about loosening environmental rules during the pandemic to “pass the herd”.

“We need to make an effort here, while we are in this moment of tranquility in terms of press coverage, because it only talks about Covid, and go through the herd and change all the rules and simplify”, he said at the time. “From Iphan, from the Ministry of Agriculture, from the Ministry of Environment, from the Ministry of this, from the Ministry of that. colleagues and the president.

Sought after, Salles did not respond to questions about events that occurred during his administration.

A year later, places like Campo Belo, Itaim Bibi, Jardim Paulista, Moema and Morumbi, in the south and west of the city of São Paulo, were granaries of votes for Salles. All are neighborhoods characterized by the high concentration of income and the best socioeconomic indicators in the city.

The former minister finished first in 65 polling stations in the capital, most of which are traditional private schools. In ten of these points, he had more than 10% of the nominal votes for federal deputy. He was the most voted, for example, in the Clube Atlético Paulistano, which he himself frequents, with 11.4% — a flurry in an election for the Legislative, where the vote tends to be pulverized.

It is from Paulistano that engineer Carlos Pascual, 61, meets Salles. “It’s center-right, I share his ideas”, says the voter.

Pascual says that he worked with agriculture and that he defends “good inspection” against illegal deforestation, but says that, on the other hand, there is legal deforestation, which, in his view, should be allowed. “Today there is a sect. Huge propaganda about absurd deforestation, [mas] larger have occurred in the past. We have a lot of trouble with that part.”

Regarding the meeting of “passing the cattle”, he says that the former minister did not use an “appropriate way” to express himself. “Many people there talked nonsense. The way, the foul language”, opines the engineer, who said he also voted for Jair Bolsonaro.

Interior designer Miriam Botelho, 45, says she doesn’t remember about the “cattle” meeting. But she claims that she follows Salles on social media and voted for him because she thought he was smart. “That’s what attracts me to people. The way they manifest themselves, if they have consistency. For me, he has a good plan, a good manifestation and a good vision of reality, without misrepresentation.”

Federal public servant Rogério de Souza Loureiro, 50, says his vote for Salles goes beyond the way the newly elected deputy defends his ideas. “Brazil went very much to the side of ‘forbid everything’, that no one touches the forest, and we are failing to exploit the riches that are essential for our country in a sustainable way”, he says.

Bolsonaro’s former minister received financial support from great businessmen such as José Salim Mattar Júnior, former chairman of the board of directors of Localiza, Marcos Ermírio de Moraes, heir to the Votorantim Group, Marcelo Campos Ometto, of São Martinho, Antonio Eduardo Toniello, from Copercana, Helio Seibel, from Dexco, and Gastão de Souza Mesquita, from Companhia Melhoramentos Norte do Paraná. They are included in the accounts rendered to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) as the main donors to the Salles campaign, with amounts between R$ 100,000 and R$ 250,000 each.

In general, the companies with which they are or have been linked claim that donations are made on a personal basis, not representing a position of legal entities. The advice of Salim Mattar Júnior was contacted, but did not return until publication. The same happened with Mesquita.

Despite the expressive vote, Salles is far from being unanimous among voters from wealthy neighborhoods of São Paulo. One of the people approached by the report on Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima said it was “offensive” to ask if he voted for him. “God forbid” was also another common expression among the residents.

In Moema, speech therapist Joice Moura de Campos, 28, is one of those who oppose the former minister but says she is not surprised by Salles’ vote in the neighborhood. She says that she even thought that Bolsonaro himself would win in the first round. “It’s suffocating. Close to my house, it was hell on Sunday morning, everyone in green and yellow, Bolsonaro’s shirt.”

In 2018, Salles had also run for federal deputy for São Paulo — at the time for the Novo party —, but he got only 36,000 votes and was not elected. He commanded the Ministry of the Environment between January 2019 and June last year.

Regarding the profile of his voters, Salles told Sheet who “are good men and women, who value the liberal economic agenda, the conservative values ​​of the family, individual freedoms and sustainable and rational economic development”. “Anyone who doesn’t agree votes for another one,” she added.

Professor at the Institute of Energy and Environment at USP, Pedro Cortes says that the former minister has great communication skills, even because he is a lawyer. “He manages to directly articulate the ideas he defends. However, the agenda he sets is very outdated in terms of rational use of the Amazon”, he says.

Regarding the fact that large businessmen have made donations to Salles’ campaign, the USP professor recalls that what the former minister defends “is not covered by ESG practices (environmental, social and corporate governance)”.

A professor at PUC-SP, political scientist Vera Lúcia Chaia recalls that Ricardo Salles was directly involved in campaigns in the last decade against the PT and former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva —he was the founder of the Enright Brazil movement—, for this is quite close and known to this part of the electorate.

“He continued in the media in general. He is a commentator for Jovem Pan, the channel most linked to Bolsonarist positions. He has a constant presence,” he says.

According to the political scientist, Salles’ relationship with his constituents does not involve environmental issues. “It’s much more an elite vote. He already had a political platform prepared before he became a minister, totally linked to the richest sectors of the population.”

A survey carried out by the Brazilian Social Network for Just and Sustainable Cities, based on data from the municipal administration of 2017, points out that neighborhoods that gave Salles first place are among the ten most with greater street afforestation, in a list with the 96 districts of the city. capital. The exception is Jardim Paulista (23rd place, but even so, with real pockets of green in its territory, such as the Jardim Europa area).