Doria’s nods to the Workers’ Party show broad opposition could be a reality in Brazil

João Doria, the Governor of São Paulo state, has been a reliable political weathervane since he emerged on the political scene. Possessing no firm political convictions of his own, he always seems the first to sense the direction of where the political wind is blowing. Since 2016, he has been reliably gliding in the direction of antipetismo, the Brazilian term for anti-Workers Party (PT) sentiment, which took him to a landslide first-round victory in the city of São Paulo’s mayoral elections. 

In 2018, further propelled by Jair Bolsonaro’s tailwind, he was elected governor, promoting a “Bolsodoria” platform to gobble up the anti-Workers’ Party vote in the state. Now with his gaze firmly fixed on the 2022 presidential elections, he has shifted from bashing the left and is instead attempting to position himself as the leader of a broad democratic front, against President Jair Bolsonaro.

Mr. Doria is the most prominent voice among Brazilian state governors clashing with the president over his mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis. Last week he made a novel proposition, saying that in order to vanquish an incompetent and authoritarian president, a broad democratic coalition was needed, with space for both the center-right and center-left — including the Workers’ Party. He declared that “the virus has neither ideology nor party, this is the moment for focus, serenity, and hard work to save Brazil and Brazilians.”

For a man who has made his political fortune on antipetismo, this seems like a significant move. Indeed, it could mark a paradigm shift in Brazil politics, which has largely been defined by anti-Workers’ Party sentiment since 2013. While his comments remain nothing more than words, Mr. Doria was willing to retweet former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and was praised by his former...