Flávio did not warn parties in advance and Ciro and Rueda will hear from benches about their support, Senate opposition leader says

Still according to Marinho, the presidents of the PP, Ciro Nogueira, and of the União, Antonio Rueda, heard Flávio’s arguments and declared that they would listen to the subtitles before announcing a decision.

—The decision (to launch Flávio) was not communicated in advance to the allied parties, and today was the time to talk about how this decision was made. Ciro and Rueda listened and were receptive and will talk to their parties to make a decision — Marinho said. — The launch took place on Friday, so there is a maturation period. From there, leaders will make decisions. We will seek to attract the center and the center-right,

Marinho was chosen as spokesperson for the meeting which brought together Flávio, Rueda, Nogueira and the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto. The president of the Republicans, Marcos Pereira, was invited but did not come.

Flávio’s launch was set last week and was followed by a back-and-forth over the candidacy and the resistance expressed by Centrão.

Centrão’s first assessment is that the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro will fail to unify the opposition. Voting intention polls also weigh against him, indicating a high level of rejection due to his last name and his preference for São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans).

The discontent, already manifested behind the scenes, became public with the declaration of the president of the PP, Senator Ciro Nogueira (PI). The former Minister of the Civil House of the Bolsonaro government said Monday morning, before the meeting with the evening allies, that the candidates with competitive potential in the bloc are those of Tarcísio and the governor of Paraná, Ratinho Junior (PSD).

— Senator Flávio is one of my best friends in public life. But politics is not done only with friendship, it is done with research, feasibility and listening to allied parties. This cannot simply be a decision of the PL, it must be constructed. It is important that we unify the entire political field of the center and the right, otherwise we will not win the elections — said Nogueira.

Flávio was also facing bad repercussions for the statement that there would be a “price” for renouncing the candidacy, in indirect reference to the attempt to approve an amnesty for those involved in the acts of January 8, which would also benefit his father.

The sentence, handed down two days after the announcement, was considered an error aimed at weakening a candidacy already in question.

—There’s a chance I won’t go through with it. I will negotiate. I have a price to pay for not going through with it — he said on Sunday after participating in a service in Brasilia.

After the meeting, Marinho said that Flávio never treated the candidacy as a “trial balloon”.

The most recent figures from Datafolha, however, indicate a better situation for the governor of São Paulo. According to the institute, Lula would obtain 51% against 36% for Flávio in a possible second round, a difference of 15 percentage points. In the scenario against Tarcísio, Lula would obtain 47%, five points more than the governor, with 42%. The situation is similar in another table studied: Lula obtains 47%, while Ratinho Junior obtains 41%.