Understand why the PT will not have a candidate for governor in RS for the first time in history

Understand why the PT will not have a candidate for governor in RS for the first time in history For the first time since its foundation, in 1980, the Workers' Party will not have its own candidate for the government of Rio Grande do Sul. Edegar Pretto, who represented the party in the 2022 elections and did not reach the second round by 2,400 votes, will be a candidate for vice on Juliana Brizola's (PDT) ticket in this year's election. The decision was taken in Brasília, in an agreement signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the national leader of the PT, Edinho Silva, with Carlos Lupi's PDT and João Campos' PSB. The strategy was to have a unique platform for Lula's campaign in the states. ? Access the g1 RS channel on WhatsApp PT Gaucho intended to have its own candidacy and launched Edegar as the party's pre-candidate. In the middle of the pre-campaign, the state directory sought to negotiate with the leaders of the party and was firm in its position of keeping the PT member as head of the ticket. The national command did not give in. The PDT supports PT candidates in 12 states, including the Federal District. In return, the PED supporters asked for support in two states — and the candidacy of Leonel Brizola's granddaughter in Rio Grande do Sul was a priority. Can Lula intervene in the RS elections? Understand negotiations between PT and PDT The negotiations to build the alliance caused a crisis in the PT in Rio Grande do Sul, which insisted on having a candidate for governor and suffered an unprecedented intervention from the national directorate. Ultimately, interest in Lula's re-election weighed. "Under normal conditions, the PT-RS would present its own candidate. But, as it is in President Lula's interest to get closer to the PDT, and one of the states in which the PDT still has a certain strength is RS, this led to this alliance, even if against the wishes of some of the leaders of the state PT itself", analyzes Rodrigo Stumpf Gonzalez, political scientist and professor at UFRGS. The PT has already governed Rio Grande do Sul on two occasions, with Olívio Dutra (1999-2002) and Tarso Genro (2011-2014), in addition to having won the mayorship of Porto Alegre in four consecutive elections, governing the capital of Rio Grande do Sul between 1989 and 2004. The state was also one of the bases for the birth of the party, in 1980. “The PT, since 2018, when was defeated at the polls, began to change part of his strategy, and observed that, to win the presidency, it was necessary to promote resources in some states, ceasing to have candidates for governor and applying support to candidates from the left spectrum”, explains Paulo Ramirez, political scientist and professor of the Social and Consumer Sciences course at ESPM. "Apart from all the wear and tear on the part of the PT in the south of the country, in RS, in Santa Catarina. Faced with this aversion, the PT realized that it would be much more interesting to guarantee support from potential elected allies than to necessarily promote its own campaigns", he adds. History of PT and PDT candidacies for the government of RS Arte/g1 Since Tarso Genro left the Piratini Palace, the PT has not gone beyond the first round of an election for governor. There are already two elections — 2018 and 2022 — seeing opponents from the center, center-right and right-wing competing in the second round. In this 2026 election, the PDT-PT duo emerges as one of the main candidates in the Rio Grande do Sul election, according to recent polls of voting intentions, with chances of reaching the decisive stage of the election. "In RS, the PDT has an electorate more towards the center, including the center-right. This favors, if not the possibility of victory — which is also a real possibility — a platform for President Lula in RS that attracts a more centrist electorate, particularly in the interior of the state", says Gonzalez. "In case there is a national second round, a local alliance that can go to the second round, even if it is not victorious, also favors having a platform. A pure PT candidacy could be left out of the second round and leave Lula an orphan in RS", he adds. The leaders of the PDT and PT in the state celebrate the decision of a single platform after an initial raid, when the Workers' Party rejected the proposal. "This vision that was created in the election from a national scenario and that ended up extending to RS is very important. Juliana's candidacy is very competitive and the PT's understanding, both national and local, was to create an alliance with a breadth that goes from the center-left to the left. This breadth gives enormous electoral capacity and broadens political horizons", says the state president of the PDT and mayor of Osório, Romildo Bolzan Jr. "It has a historical value. This entire articulation was made based on a correct reading that this election is nationalized. We need to have the state campaigns extremely in tune with the national campaign. Having the alliance with the PDT here is part of this national cohesion articulated by the national leadership of the PT, the PDT, the PSB and President Lula himself", adds Valdeci Oliveira, state deputy and president of the PT Carlos Lupi, national president of the PDT; Juliana Brizola, Pedestrian pre-candidate for the RS government; and President Lula, from PT. Ricardo Stuckert/PR VIDEOS: Everything about RS