Ratinho Junior's group mounts a front against Moro, which attracts Novo and his family of Bolsonaro supporters

Senator Sergio Moro (PL), leader in polls of voting intentions for the Executive, will campaign with the support of the Francischini family and Deltan Dallagnol's Novo party, both taken from Ratinho Junior's base.

In addition to Alex and Moro, another big name in the race for government is state deputy Requião Filho (PDT), who appears in second place in the polls. He has the support of the PT, in a merger made at the end of last year that also brings together PV, PC do B and the PSOL-Rede federation, in addition to PRD and Solidariedade. For the Senate, the ticket features two PT names: Lula's former minister and federal deputy Gleisi Hoffmann and former federal deputy Dr. Rosinha.

Ratinho Junior's group took longer to define a name for the polls and felt the impact of Moro's affiliation with the PL, at the end of March. Former president Jair Bolsonaro's party, which today has the second largest group in the Legislative Assembly of Paraná, was part of the governor's allied base.

To guarantee a broad alliance against Moro, Ratinho Junior worked to remove two names from the race who were willing to run for governor: state deputy Alexandre Curi (Republicans), president of the Assembly, and the former mayor of Curitiba Rafael Greca (MDB).

Curi accepted one of the Senate candidate spots on the PSD ticket. And Greca agreed to be Alex's candidate for vice-governor, who in the last Genial/Quaest survey appeared behind the emedebista, in fourth position.

Ratinho Junior also called presenter and political commentator Cristina Graeml to join the PSD, in an attempt to secure some share of the Bolsonarista electorate for Alex's ticket. It gave her the second place in the Senate race, making the candidacy of former senator Alvaro Dias (MDB) unfeasible, who in the double with Greca appeared in first place in the polls.

In addition to MDB and Republicans, the PSD also managed to attract the federation formed by the PP and União Brasil, in the wake of the friction between Moro and the leaders of the two parties. Avante and the PSDB-Cidadania federation also form the alliance.

But the composition of the ticket also brought conflicts, and PSD supporters fear effects on the campaign - electoral propaganda begins on August 16th.

"I learned that no candidacy is based solely on the will of one man or public opinion. In current politics, the arrangements, compositions and will of politicians prevail", said Alvaro Dias in a statement upon leaving the race for the Senate, on Monday (3).

Another passer-by on the ticket, former Secretary of Cities Guto Silva (PSD) now remains more distant from the group. “Silence is also a position and every position has a deadline,” he wrote on social media.

Ratinho Junior's right-hand man throughout his two terms at Palácio Iguaçu, Guto was the most popular name to compete for the succession until the beginning of the year. But he did not take off in the polls enough to be considered competitive against Moro, according to supporters.

The greatest discomfort in the PSD ticket, however, is related to the presence of Cristina Graeml, who ran for Mayor of Curitiba in 2024 affiliated with the PMB and against Greca and Ratinho Junior's candidate, Eduardo Pimentel (PSD), winner of that election.

From the radical right in tune with Bolsonarism, Graeml managed to take the electoral race to the second round, even without a party structure. The campaign was fierce, with accusations being exchanged from side to side. The then candidate used to call Pimentel the “system candidate”.

On Tuesday (4), when confirming Graeml's name on the ticket, the governor said he sees her as "a talent from the new crop of Paraná politics" and justified "common values", such as "protection of private property and economic freedom".

Two years ago, when facing its competitor, the PSD joined in a speech against what it classified as an "ideological agenda that does not put food on the table". Now, a similar tone has been used to confront Moro, known for his speeches against the PT.

"Paraná is giant. And it's giant because it didn't get into a fight, an ideological, meaningless fight. That's why we grew more than Brazil," said Ratinho Junior in a video distributed in July.

Alex has also adopted the strategy, repeating that the governor's role "is not to destroy" and that "politics is not done with hate speech". "We move forward united and in peace", sells the group's slogan.

Moro tries to enthuse the Bolsonarista militancy without losing the Paraná agenda of the script. In the interviews he has given, he avoids direct criticism of the governor, who has 80% approval among the electorate, but started to list local problems.

During the state PL convention, Moro wore a t-shirt with the phrase "Curitiba arrested. Brasília released", in reference to Lula's trials in Operation Lava Jato, and also defended the freedom of Bolsonaro, convicted of an attempted coup d'état.

Affiliated to PL, Moro managed to close an alliance with Novo, Podemos and DC (Christian Democracy). On the ticket, the candidates for the Senate are federal deputy Filipe Barros (PL) and former Lava Jato prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Novo), both defenders of conservative agendas and staunch critics of President Lula.

The anti-PT flag is also linked to the political trajectory of the Francischini family, which was an ally of Ratinho Junior, but migrated to Moro's alliance. The first deputy impeached by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) for spreading fake news, Fernando Francischini joined the PL and wants to run for federal deputy in the October election.

State deputy Flávia Francischini, Fernando's wife, made the same move and will seek re-election, with an eye on the presidency of the Assembly, in case of Moro's victory. Another pre-candidate for re-election, federal deputy