Crystalising the campaign

Last week (13 August) I recounted “What’s at stake?”, a document drafted by the political scientist Emir Sader. Today the Folha would seem to back up the importance of these elections for the PT (Workers Party). Polls indicate the left-wing PT and the centrist PSDB (Social Democrats) are the front runners in 68 of the largest cities in Brazil. These account for nearly a third of the population.

Of the 68, the PT currently runs 24 and only leads in 13. Which makes the value of Sao Paulo all the more important. Beyond the PSDB the only other challenger to them and the PT is the catch-all PMDB (Democratic Movement Party). But even they don’t stand much of a chance in either Sao Paulo or Belo Horizonte, two of the bigger cities which would offer them national projection.

And where are the neo-liberal PFL (Liberal Front Party), you may ask? Well, they needn’t bother putting up their own candidates, when they can use the PSDB as their proxies.