Bruno Covas, Mayor of São Paulo and bet of the Social Democrats, dies at 41 | International

Like his grandfather, the former mayor and governor Mário Covas, 20 years ago cancer interrupted Bruno Covas’ life. The mayor of São Paulo died this Sunday at the age of 41. Covas had been admitted to the Syrian Lebanese hospital in the capital of São Paulo since May 2 to treat a hemorrhage in the digestive system, a region in which he has been fighting a cancerous tumor since 2019. Member of one of the most important political dynasties of state, the politician PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) was elected in November 2020 to his term as head of the largest city in Latin America – previously he had held the post since 2018, as he assumed the post by the election of the incumbent João Doria to the state government. Covas had been on leave from town hall since earlier this month, when cancer spread from the cardia, between the esophagus and stomach, to the politician’s liver and bones. Deputy Mayor Ricardo Nunes, a politician with a conservative profile, linked to the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), will take charge of São Paulo until 2024.

Bruno Covas was born in Santos in 1980, a year after his grandfather, Mário, regained his political rights during the final phase of the dictatorship. Son of the politician’s eldest daughter, Renata, Bruno had his life and career linked to those of his grandfather by his surname. While studying at private schools in Santos in the 80s and 90s, Bruno saw Mário being elected federal deputy, becoming mayor of São Paulo, breaking the record for votes for an elective office when he ran for senator. , leaving the PMDB to found the PSDB and candidate for the presidency of Brazil until in 1994 he won the election of governor of the state, the last post he held in his life.

The year Mário Covas was sworn in as governor of São Paulo, in 1995, Bruno moved to São Paulo to study at Colégio Bandeirantes and live with his grandfather. Three years later, he entered the University of São Paulo (USP) as a law student, graduating in 2002, and the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-SP) as a student in economics, obtaining his diploma in 2005. When he passed the entrance exams to the university, influenced by his grandfather, he joined the PSDB, he was elected first secretary of the organization of the young party in 1999, president of São Paulo branch in 2003 and national president in 2007. Mário Covas died in March 2001, after having resigned. governor, due to bladder cancer.

Even before finishing his second university degree, Bruno Covas took part in his first municipal election as a vice for Raul Christiano, of the PSDB, at the town hall of Santos, when they came in fourth place. However, the fond memories of Paulistas linked to his last name won him over 120,000 votes in 2006 and election as state deputy in São Paulo. At 30, he was re-elected as the most voted in the state with nearly 240,000 votes. He left his post to join Geraldo Alckmin’s government in 2011 as environment secretary, a post he held until 2014.

After a successful start in political life, he arrived in Brasilia as an elected federal deputy in 2014. It was only two years in the Federal Chamber, during which he voted in favor of the impeachment of the president. Dilma Roussef (PT) in 2016. “So that we can save hope in this country, in ourselves, in the institutions and in democracy”, he justified then. The same year, he was elected deputy mayor of São Paulo according to the formula of João Doria (PSDB), and effectively assumed the municipal council of the largest city in the country in 2018, when Doria left him to run for office. state governor elections.

Bruno Covas’ life is shared between before and after being mayor of São Paulo. Starting with the physical and aesthetic question. Recalled in previous campaigns as a character with starchy hair and an overweight body, Bruno assumed baldness, adopted a beard, and lost 20 pounds with a fitness routine, which combined a restricted diet with new exercises. A healthier and younger look, with which he faced a collapsed viaduct on the Marginal Pinheiros highway, the truckers’ strike and the fire of an irregular occupation in the center of Largo do Paissandu, events occurred in 2018. He was only told that he would be dejected by his first diagnosis of heart cancer, in the region between the esophagus and the stomach, in October 2019, a year and a half after taking office. The disease would cause him to lose his beard and even more weight.

At first, Covas assured that he would not ask for the withdrawal of the city council to treat the tumor. And he tried to be transparent about the evolution of the cancer: in July of the following year, he told journalist Marina Rossi that he had already undergone eight sessions of chemotherapy “which made it regress at most two of the three tumors “. Between diagnosis and improvement, the covid-19 pandemic has been the biggest challenge in the political career of the Social Democrat, who has at times heard complaints from the commercial sector for adopting an overly restrictive stop, while at others At times, it has been criticized by epidemiologists for making the economy more flexible than science recommends. “Normally when they hit us from both sides, both those who don’t want us to reopen and those who want us to open, it’s because we manage to find common ground between what is possible and which is not, “he said, stressing that” the greatest good to be preserved is life. You don’t have a consumer if everyone dies ”. The mayor lived in town hall for three months at the start of the health crisis and was infected with the virus in July 2020, but recovered quickly.

With six more immunotherapy sessions until the end of 2020, Bruno has improved to the point of running and winning the São Paulo municipal elections last November. He had a moderate speech: he opposed the denial of Jair Bolsonaro, who had his representative in the São Paulo elections to Celso Russomanno (Republicans), and defeated leftist Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), who had the support of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the second round, calling for moderation instead of “radicalism”. His son Tomás, the fruit of his marriage from 2004 to 2014 with Karen Ichiba, appeared as a great companion of the mayor. Inside the Matarazzo building, seat of the city council, the mayor received a visit from his son and celebrated, without partying, the arrival of his 40th birthday. In the latest controversy he was involved in, he took Tomás to see the Copa Libertadores final at Maracana on January 30, cheering his side, Santos, against Palmeiras. He was criticized because, while applauding from the stands in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, a decree was in force – and still is – which prohibits the presence of the public during football matches.

The following month, he revealed that the last of the three tumors had not regressed, but had worsened, spreading to the mayor’s liver and bones. He still had to face the worst phase of the pandemic in his city in March and April 2021, before being hospitalized on April 15 for a new treatment of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. He was released on the 27th, but he did not improve.

The controversial election of Ricardo Nunes

Bruno Covas was seen as a hope for renewal in the weakened PSDB, which saw its national influence diminish from year to year, after leaving the Brazilian presidency which he held with Fernando Henrique Cardoso between 1995 and 2002. São Paulo then became a strategic stronghold of the party’s social democratic origins and was the politician responsible for keeping it intact, winning last November’s elections. Despite his moderate profile, like that of his grandfather, Covas chose as his running mate the curator Ricardo Nunes, a counselor with a speech aligned with Bolsonarist rhetoric, opposed to policies of sexual diversity and abortion and defender of the restrictive School of Education project. without a party. Nunes, who also has a domestic violence complaint filed against him by his wife years ago (she says she does not remember the episode), barely made an appearance during the election campaign. Behind the scenes, Nunes’ election to the post was attributed to Governor João Doria, who would express BMD’s support for his possible candidacy for the presidency of Brazil in 2022.

In the 20 months he has been confronted with the disease, Bruno Covas has resigned only once: on May 2, a Sunday, transferring his powers to Ricardo Nunes for a period that would be 30 days. In one of his last posts on social networks, he appears smiling: “Without lowering his head and without losing his motivation”.