The interview published yesterday in Globo, in which the deputy mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Cavaliere, winked to the right, was responded to diplomatically by Edinho Silva.
In short, Cavaliere said he saw the PT’s rhetoric on public security as “nonsense” and suggested that Lula’s government would rely on a non-existent “spontaneous alignment” for the 2026 elections. The PT president wrote in an official note:
“(…) Our allies can think differently, there are no problems, it is part of democracy, but what we want is to really defeat crime and not just fuel ineffective media measures; I have been talking every day with Mayor Eduardo Paes, our political alliance has never been so strong, and he is President Lula’s partner for the first time, and his boss. The premise of the PT candidacy in Rio de Janeiro does not exist. Let us not divide the democratic field. Whoever invests in this bears no responsibility for the historical moment that Brazil is experiencing.”
The tone of the note is conciliatory. But in internal Labor conversations, the impression was different.
José Dircio was not alone in finding the interview disrespectful. Party leaders too. In private, comments range from “Paes is flirting with the right” to “Any candidate the PT launches for Rio’s government will get 30%.”
In short, there is a threat, still in its infancy, of a break in the alliance between Paes and the Labor Party – and it should be noted that this fracture was caused by Paes. The ball is now in the mayor’s court. If it continues to flash to the right and hits PT, a rearrangement of the current image may occur.