Brazil’s Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) confirmed Marcio Franca as Fernando Haddad’s running mate for Sao Paulo state governor and endorsed Simone Tebet for the Federal Senate at a state convention held Friday at the Sao Paulo State Legislative Assembly. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin attended the event.
Tebet, a former Planning Minister, defended Brazilian sovereignty and women’s rights while criticising the record of Governor Tarcisio de Freitas of the Republicanos party. She cited 141 femicides recorded in Sao Paulo in the first half of the year, according to the Public Security Secretariat, arguing that no public security figures could conceal what she called a shameful surge in domestic violence in the state.
She also outlined a broad-front strategy for the interior campaign, saying different candidates would reach different constituencies, including evangelical voters, agribusiness, family farmers and the productive sector, with the group sometimes together and sometimes working separately according to each candidate’s profile.
Pre-Senate candidate Marina Silva of the Rede party also received backing at the convention.
Residency dispute
Franca challenged where Tarcisio actually lives, saying no one had been able to establish that the governor had any residence in Sao Paulo and asserting he lives in the northwest zone of Brasilia. Franca called it an affront for the state’s governor to have no home, apartment or rented accommodation in Sao Paulo.
The remarks responded to earlier statements by Tarcisio targeting Tebet and Marina Silva, who are from Mato Grosso do Sul and Acre respectively. In a video published previously, the governor said both women had not begun their political careers in Sao Paulo, had been rejected by their home states, and would not be elected in Sao Paulo either.
