At the start of his tenure as finance minister in the third Lula government, 22% of Brazilians surveyed by DataFolha said the economy was the country’s third problem. This month, the percentage fell to 11%. Fernando Haddad is ready to finish his work. He announces that he will soon leave the government. And he offers to coordinate Lula’s re-election campaign.
To those who ask him if he would like to be a candidate for the government of São Paulo, he denies that he is. To those who ask him if he would not agree to be Lula’s vice-president in the event that Geraldo Alckmin presents himself to succeed Tarcísio de Freitas, he simply smiles. He doesn’t say it, but he admits that the future belongs to God and that time is the master of reason. He is satisfied with what he has done.
Of him, Lula says, jokingly, but not only, that Haddad has always been the most conservative of the PT members. As such, understand: the most moderate and most liberal of his party colleagues. The toucan was the mark of a party in danger of extinction: the PSDB of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, twice president of the Republic, Mário Covas, governor of São Paulo, and Beto Richa, governor of Paraná.
No one, except Janja, visited Lula imprisoned in Curitiba more than Haddad. In 2018, Lula launched him as a vice-presidential candidate, hoping that his candidacy for president would be authorized by the courts. As this was not the case, Haddad became president less than a month before the elections. Haddad managed to advance to the second round, beaten by Bolsonaro who had been stabbed.
In the 2022 elections, Haddad made the sacrifice of running for governor of São Paulo against Tarcísio de Freitas, Bolsonaro’s boss. Tarcísio continues to be Bolsonaro’s boss and Faria Lima’s favorite. Haddad lost. But without the vote he obtained, notably by defeating Tarcísio in the capital, Lula would not have been elected for the third time.
The PT is a party that lacks strong names to become president in 2030. Today, Haddad, with the support of a finally re-elected Lula, would be the only one. The two are inseparable. Haddad will help Lula wherever he is needed – always as a candidate for governor or senator of São Paulo, or as coordinator of the presidential campaign, if necessary.
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