Organized to help unify the right and demonstrate the strength of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the act on September 7th had the opposite effect: it exposed a split in Bolsonaroism, dividing into two groups the friends of which a vice president on the ticket is running. PL.
Although he was prevented from joining the official trio of the event — and complained about it — Pablo Marçal arrived at Av. Paulista by helicopter, took photos and made videos with supporters, generating 36 cuts to social media. One of them had more than 6 million views.
Marçal has the sympathy of deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and senator Cleitinho (PL-MG), who even recorded videos doing Marçal’s “M”. The former Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles (Novo), also gave a nod to the PRTB candidate, saying that “the well-organized right” can win in São Paulo.
Ricardo Nunes has in his favor the support of governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) and the sympathy of federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro — but he was not
mentioned during Jair Bolsonaro’s speech at the electric trio.
Nunes’ campaign has so far been unable to record videos of him with Bolsonaro and has recycled a single image, which shows the former president defending him at the party convention that made him official as a candidate. The video was recorded before Marçal soared in the polls and shared first place with Nunes and Guilherme Boulos (PSOL).
HAS CNNNunes said that Bolsonaro did not make the recordings this Saturday (7) because he was focusing on the demonstration and that their relationship is going well. “Everything is fine, we left the Palácio (dos Bandeirantes) together for Paulista. We will record others when he comes to São Paulo”, he stated.
Campaign organizers on the right who work in both the Ricardo Nunes campaign and the Pablo Marçal campaign believe that Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) has a guaranteed passport for the second round.
This is precisely why in this dispute between Nunes and Marçal, Boulos’ campaign “roots for the fight”.
The initial reading was that it would be easier to beat Marçal than Nunes in the second round, but the strategy changed in the last few days with more cohesive attacks aimed at Pablo Marçal.
The fear is that the PRTB candidate will arrive strengthened for the second round if he defeats Nunes and will bring together the right-wing portion of the São Paulo voter.
In Ricardo Nunes’ campaign, interlocutors identified that deputy Nikolas Ferreira is the main representative of a pro-Marçal Bolsonarist wing. The idea of Nunes’ group is that a certain “political pressure” would make the “stray Bolsonaristas” retreat.
On Saturday night (7), the mayor’s organizers still propagated the idea that Bolsonaro had been irritated with Marçal and had even called him a “pickaxe” before his speech, complaining about a trio parallel to the official one.
But wanted by CNNBolsonaro denied that he used the term to refer to Marçal. Allies of the former president confirmed that the speech was generic and not directed at anyone specific.
Pastor Silas Malafaia, organizer of the event, released videos that show people calling Marçal a “coward”. In an interview with Veja, he criticized the delay of the PRTB candidate, who was returning from El Salvador. “Why did you only arrive now to take selfies and cuts for the political campaign? You’re going to fool Muggles, not me,” he said.
The numbers provide a backdrop to the split. The latest AtlasIntel survey showed that Marçal inherits 42% of the votes of those who chose Bolsonaro in the second round of the presidential election in 2022. Nunes has a smaller share, 37%.
