ANALYSIS-Brazilian Left Seeks to Rebuild after Bolsonaro's Victory

By Brad Brooks

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – The victory of Jair Bolsonaro, candidate from the far right to the Brazilian presidency, dealt a blow to the Workers' Party, which must now find a way to rebuild itself.

The PT, the force that has shaped Brazilian politics for much of the past two decades, is still headed – now in prison – by its 73-year-old founder. But the organization is threatened by internal divisions and concentrates its forces in a region far from the center of the country's economic power.

The damage goes beyond the electoral defeat suffered by the candidate Fernando Haddad, who lost by a margin of 10 percentage points in the vote of the weekend.

For millions of Brazilians, the PT has become synonymous with corruption and mismanagement. During the party's term in recent years, the biggest corruption scandal in the country's history has erupted, with the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and street crime having reached alarming levels.

The reaction was severe. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom Barack Obama has described as the most popular politician on Earth, is currently serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering.

His successor, Dilma Rousseff, appointed by the former union leader, was forced to leave office for violation of the Finance Act.

This anger is reflected in support for Bolsonaro, who receives a considerable number of votes among low-income workers, Afro-Brazilians, and university students who have long been the main proponents of the PT.

The controversial leader took advantage of this attack

In fact, even voters deranged by the speech of Bolsonaro – who urged the police to shoot to kill and pledged to imprison or expel their political enemies of the country – they chose this formula to prevent the PT from coming back to power.

The Brazilian hip-hop icon, Mano Brown, criticized party leaders for losing contact with voters in a PT Concert in Rio de Janeiro a few days before the defeat of Haddad.

"There is no reason for the celebration," Brown told the audience, among which Haddad himself and musicians Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque. "If you do not speak the language of the people, you will suffer a severe defeat."

PROJECT OF POWER

Corruption in Brazilian politics existed long before the creation of the PT in 1980 with the aim of uniting trade unionists. , artists and intellectuals to contribute to the end of the dictatorship that ruled the country between 1964 and 1985.

And all major political parties in Brazil, not just the PT, are involved in the investigation into Operation Bleaching Cars that took Lula to prison.

PT Loyalists claim that Lula and Rousseff were victims of a rightwing "coup d'etat" aimed at discrediting their leaders and canceling social programs to lift millions of people out of the country. poverty and be granted to minorities a place at the table where decisions are made.

But there are also supporters of the PT who admit that their pbadage from opposition to the government has made them lose touch with their roots.

"The PT has gradually changed its project for Brazil to the benefit of an energy project," said Carlos Alberto Libanio Christo, a Catholic priest and founding member of the PT, known in Brazil as Frei Betto.

"The party He disappeared from the countryside and the suburbs of the suburbs," says Frei Betto, who spent four years in prison during the dictatorship.

The ever-present presence of Lula, who still pulls the strings of the prison, is another challenge. The former president, who had been prevented from standing as a candidate because of his convictions for serious crimes, replaced the former mayor of Sao Paulo Haddad, which decision, in light of the results, was a failure resounding.

Lula loyalists continue to support Haddad despite his absolute defeat. "Haddad came out of this election as a great leader," said Washington Quaquá, leader of the PT in the state of Rio de Janeiro. "He emerged with the stature necessary to be our national leader."

But a militant faction of the PT is pushing to elect a more aggressive leader. Some complain that Haddad, professor of political science at the elitist university of Sao Paulo, is not strong enough to face Bolsonaro.

Gleisi Hoffman, the current president of the PT, resisted the idea that Haddad was the candidate in national elections until the convocation of Lula, according to party members aware of the debate internal.

But, in spite of everything, the situation is not at all discouraging for the PT, which won the most seats in Parliament. Lower House He also retained victory in four states, more than any other party, although all concentrated in the poor northeast of Brazil, his traditional stronghold.

After the disappearance of Bolsonaro's victory, the PT will unite and badume its role as leader of the resistance, under the leadership of Haddad, believes Alberto Almeida, founder of Brasilis, an badyst firm political and social located in Sao Paulo.

"After all, he added 45 million votes," said Almeida, saying the PT's mission would face the biggest challenge since the return to democracy thirty years ago: fighting a "head of 39, far right "

" In this way, the role of the PT is similar to that of American Democrats with (Donald) Trump, "he said.

This same Haddad said in his speech after the electoral defeat in which he had issued a war cry to overcome the discouragement within the party.

"All here, who have contributed to the building of one of the world's democracies, we must continue to face provocations and threats," he said. "Have courage, the key to life is courage."

(Additional report of Lisandra Paragubadu in Sao Paulo, published in Spanish by Javier Leira)