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The dispute in the largest Brazilian city promises to be one of the most exciting in the second round of municipal elections on Sunday. The candidate of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), Guilherme Boulos, has managed to reduce the disadvantage compared to the current “mayor”, Bruno Covas, of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), and may be in for a surprise.
The polls continue to give Covas an advantage, but with little advantage over Boulos, who spent the second round of the campaign closing the gap for the “mayor” seeking reelection. With the elections marked by the assessment by the electorate of the management carried out by the mayors of the covid-19 pandemic in their cities, the growing evolution of infections in recent weeks may penalize Covas.
After a slowdown, the infection rate increased again in São Paulo, and several hospitals have an intense occupation of beds in intensive care units. However, in public, Covas has tried to minimize the situation. “There is no indication of a second wave in the city,” said the “mayor” just days before the elections.
The closeness between the two candidates brought some aggression to the campaign, but the general tone has been cordial, taking into account other disputes in the rest of the country. “The violent discourse and the void of content begin to show that it is no longer worth it”, points out the political scientist Sérgio Abranches, in an interview with PÚBLICO.
Boulos’s campaign has focused attention on Covas vice presidential candidate Ricardo Nunes, who was accused of domestic violence by his wife in 2011. The case did not continue. The PSDB campaign attacks the profile of Boulos, the son of a doctor and university professor. A Covas collaborator accused Boulos of being “the son of a rich father, who lived on an allowance all his life, he went to the periphery, but never from the periphery.”
The analyst, author of the book The time of incident rulers, considers that Boulos is carrying out a “very intelligent campaign on social networks”, in view of the sanitary impositions that prevent major actions in the streets. Having won the vote of left-wing voters, orphans of the Workers’ Party (PT), whose candidate did not exceed 8% in the first round, Boulos has tried to attract the centrist electorate.
In recent days, the candidate, who is the leader of the Homeless Workers Movement, has held discreet meetings with businessmen and investors. “Boulos is sending signals to the financial market to calm down, saying that he will use private investment,” explains Abranches, whom he considers successful. “What the latest polls have shown is that Boulos is taking the electoral preference of Covas,” he adds.
Behind the success of Boulos, Abranches names the conciliatory position of the candidate who says he finds himself with the disposition of the electorate, tired of years of fierce political polarization. “Boulos, more than the PT, learned that the political path in Brazil today is through the center-left, which is more moderate.”
A victory for the PSOL candidate in the largest Brazilian city would be a historic event, but it is far from guaranteed. However, it seems certain that the dispute will be taco-a-taco, which already makes Boulos an inescapable figure on the Brazilian left.
“It is already an electoral phenomenon and qualifies as an alternative political leadership of the left, at a time of strong erosion in the PT and other left parties,” says Abranches, who sees Boulos as a “competitive candidate” for the post of governor from São Paulo, in two years.
