Opinion

By endorsing Lula, Simone Tebet may help save Brazil’s party system

Senator Simone Tebet could rebuild bridges between Brazil's two main parties — the Workers' Party and the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). Photo: Zanone Fraissat/Folhapress

Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral resilience in Sunday’s election essentially led three of the top five parties in Brazil to their grave. And if the president does get re-elected at the end of the month, the only two survivors will likely perish as well. To avoid such a dreadful outcome to the Brazilian party system, as well as keep alive the history that started with the end of the military dictatorship in the 1980s, these two survivors need to forge an alliance.

Seems like a no-brainer? Well, it is not.

The leftist Workers’ Party and the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement party (MDB), the two largest in Brazil, were going through their nastiest-ever brawl right when the far-right Mr. Bolsonaro rose to power. Now, with the possibility of President Bolsonaro winning another term after sweeping up seats in the next Congress, the two need to find a marriage counselor and start talking to one another. And they need to do it fast.

Such a neutral therapist does not exist in politics (maybe not even for real couples therapy). But the closest to a neutral position between the two is Simone Tebet, a senator who just campaigned for the presidency as the MDB candidate: she finished third, behind Mr. Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Workers’ Party’s candidate.

On Wednesday, Ms. Tebet publicly endorsed Lula. “I presented my candidacy amid a heinous polarization that didn’t offer concrete solutions to Brazil’s problems. I wanted to present an alternative to a confrontational situation that doesn’t reflect the soul of Brazil,” she said.

“Yes, I’ve criticized both frontrunners — and I stand by my criticism. Forgive me, my colleagues who urged for neutrality out of fear of losing some political capital, but what is at stake is bigger than us,” Ms. Tebet added. An omission would mean betraying my personal trajectory […] and that of my father. […] I will not spoil my ballot,” she said.

“I will [vote for Lula], as I recognize in him a commitment to democracy and the Constitution, which I do not see in the current president.”

Unlike older members of her party, Ms. Tebet does not carry the...

João Villaverde

João Villaverde is a journalist and a professor in Public Administration at think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas. He holds a master's degree in Public Administration and Government, and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. He wrote two books on the Brazilian political economy and is a co-organizer of “Reconstrução,” a book about public policymaking.