The intensification of attacks on senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicans), who comfortably leads voting intentions in Minas Gerais, and federal deputy Patrus Ananias (PT), second in the polls, marked the last week before the first round of Minas Gerais.
Candidates aligned to the right, such as current governor Mateus Simões (PSD) and businessman Flávio Roscoe (PL), have been betting on similar strategies to win a place in a possible second round, sometimes resorting to anti-PTism symbolized by the rejection of former governor Fernando Pimentel (PT), accused of influence peddling and money laundering and later acquitted, sometimes highlighting the Republican senator's inexperience in management positions.
The offensive was highlighted in the debate held by Globo on Tuesday (29) and is present in campaign pieces broadcast during election hours and on social media. "If nothing changes, the second round will be between going back or jumping in the dark", says current governor Mateus Simões (PSD), candidate for re-election, in one of these advertisements.
In the debate, Patrus Ananias said he was not campaigning as Pimentel's lawyer. The congressman, a last-minute candidate, has frequently highlighted his experience leading Belo Horizonte City Hall in the 1990s and the Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger during the first term of the Lula (PT) government.
Mentioning the experience has also been one of the hallmarks of Simões' campaign, which sought to reinforce the legacy of Romeu Zema's (Novo) administration in the state and has now intensified nods to the Bolsonarista electorate in an attempt to garner votes for the right.
In an interview with a Minas Gerais radio station, the PSD candidate cited the recent crisis involving the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and stated that Cleitinho should return to the Senate to collaborate in the possible process of deposing Minister Alexandre de Moraes. "There is no request for impeachment against the current Supreme Court minister signed by Senator Cleitinho," said Simões.
Last week, the governor also declared support for Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in the race for President, leaving his predecessor and political godfather, Zema, aside in the race for Palácio do Planalto. Zema and Simões did not share agendas during the electoral period.
The situation consolidates an informal triple platform for the PL presidential candidate in Minas Gerais, who is still supported by Cleitinho himself and Flávio Roscoe.
Roscoe, former president of Fiemg (Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais), was chosen by the PL to run for state management amid the uncertainty of the Republican senator's candidacy.
The businessman has constantly reinforced that he is the candidate chosen by Flávio and the only option to prevent the PT from continuing in the election.
Cleitinho, however, remains the target of his campaign. In the debate promoted by TV Globo, Roscoe classified the senator's proposals as a "media show for the population", citing, for example, the candidate's promise to reduce IPVA (Motor Vehicle Property Tax) costs.
Alexandre Kalil (PDT), in turn, has tried to build a campaign contrary to the polarization scenario. The candidate, who sided with President Lula in the last state elections, today says he is seeking "a free path", without declaring a vote for the PT or Flávio.
He has stated that his candidacy is the most competitive to beat Cleitinho in the second round. "We cannot let adventure take over our state again", says the former mayor of Belo Horizonte in a campaign video, in an indirect message to the senator and Zema.
Cleitinho has ignored the attacks, which so far have not had the effect of affecting the candidate's leadership, according to the latest polls of voting intentions.
"These candidates, about six months ago, were saying that we should be united", said the senator this Thursday (1st) on an agenda at Fecomércio MG (Federation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism of Minas Gerais). "Since everyone was supposed to be together so that the past doesn't come back, it's time for them to have humility, take away their arrogance and support me."
If during much of the campaign Cleitinho aimed at the interior of the state, in a gesture of strengthening the base that elected him senator, in the last week he fulfilled agendas in Belo Horizonte, in meetings with voters eventually broadcast on his social networks.
Last Monday (28), in the capital of Minas Gerais, the candidate visited CeasaMinas (Centrais de Abastecimento de Minas Gerais S.A.). According to Cleitinho, it was there that he began his work history, working in the fruit and vegetable trade alongside his father and brothers.
His humble origins and anti-system discourse, of "less State and more people", as he often says, have marked his campaign rhetoric.
Cleitinho made his candidacy official at the end of the deadline established by the Electoral Court, after a sequence of back and forth.
At the beginning of August, he published a video stating that he would not run and cited, as justification, his mourning for his brother's death. He went back the next day and interrupted a Republican national convention asking to be a candidate.
To this were added other attempts until the party released his candidacy, with a path led by his twin brother, the candidate for federal deputy Gleidson Azevedo (Republicans), and the reinforcement of famous people, such as singer Gusttavo Lima and presenter Ratinho.
According to experts' assessment, this back and forth helped to amplify the massive digital reach that the candidate already had.
