Party all but buries Sergio Moro’s presidential hopes

Sergio Moro. Photo: Isaac Amorim/MJSP

The House bench of the União Brasil party, a newly-formed right-wing outfit in Brazil, announced Congressman Luciano Bivar — its chairman — as the party’s presidential nominee for the October elections. The move will be made official on Thursday and would essentially bury any hope former Justice Minister Sergio Moro has of running for Brazil’s highest office.

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Moro ditched the Podemos party — which he had joined in November — in favor of União Brasil, which never publicly espoused his presidential hopes. União Brasil, meanwhile, is in negotiations with multiple center-right parties to announce a sole candidate on May 18, representing the so-called “third way” to break the duopoly of Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the polls.

President Bolsonaro has benefited the most from Mr. Moro’s imminent withdrawal from polls, reducing Lula’s lead from 22 points in February to 15 last week.

Amanda Audi

Amanda Audi is a journalist specializing in politics and human rights. She is the former executive director of Congresso em Foco and worked as a reporter for The Intercept Brasil, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, Gazeta do Povo, Poder360, among others. In 2019, she won the Comunique-se Award for best-written media reporter and won the Mulher Imprensa award for web journalism in 2020