On the one hand, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), and the mayor of the capital of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), spent the first week after the first round committed to the final stretch of the campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), candidate for President.
On the other, the PT redefined its strategy after the defeat of Fernando Haddad (PT) by Tarcísio and returned to the streets this Thursday (8) to start, from scratch, a new campaign for President Lula (PT) in the largest electoral college in the country.
In the first round, Flávio had 51.93% of the valid votes in the state of São Paulo, against 38.20% for the PT member. In the capital of São Paulo, the largest city in the country, the PT member reached 46.58% of the valid votes, against 42.13% for his rival.
Tarcísio, who won re-election in the first round with 62.65% of valid votes, was in Brasília in the first days of the week, in internal meetings with Flávio's campaign and at events with allies.
The governor must dive head first into the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro's (PL) son, as he has publicly promised in recent weeks. On Monday (5), the day he arrived in the federal capital, he stated in an interview with CNN Brasil that he will help organize the events and structure the state to receive Flávio.
On Tuesday (6), Tarcísio was alongside the senator in Goiânia, at an event in which Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) announced his support for the candidate – on that occasion, Flávio promised to use the right-wing majority in Congress to change the Constitution and "re-democratize the country".
The following day, the governor participated in a meeting that made official the support of the Republicans, his party, for the PL candidate in the second round. Tarcísio played an important role in the seam that led the party chaired by Marcos Pereira to ally itself with Bolsonaro's son's campaign.
As Folha showed, the governor also spoke by telephone with the president of the MDB, Baleia Rossi, to try to seek the party's support for Flávio. Mayor Ricardo Nunes did the same.
This Thursday, before returning to São Paulo, Tarcísio also participated in an event that made Podemos's support for the ally's candidacy official and in an event with governors who are in Flávio's coalition.
Nunes organized a lunch for Sunday (11) with Flávio and the mayors of the metropolitan region at Shopping Light, in the center of the capital. The expectation is that 37 of the 39 mayors will attend (the one from Mauá, Marcelo Oliveira, is from the PT, and the one from Cotia, Welington Formiga, from the PDT). For the afternoon, the mayor scheduled a meeting with the base councilors.
In a message sent to Folha, Nunes said that the priority now is to mobilize the electorate. "Show the importance of São Paulo in rescuing our country. The risks of continuing an irresponsible, wasteful government without efficient management," he wrote.
The mayor has played an active role in the campaign and is appointed as the main coordinator for Podemos to declare support for Flávio. An assistant to Nunes said that the mayor has also spoken with former deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL), the presidential candidate's brother, who lives in the United States.
Flávio is expected to return to São Paulo on Tuesday (13), for an event organized by the São Paulo Commercial Association, at the Monte Virgínia club, in the south of the capital. The governor and mayor must also participate.
The São Paulo PT only started moving towards the second round after a definition from the hard core of Lula's campaign, in Brasília, that the party should start a new campaign from scratch. The party's main names in the state met on Tuesday and Wednesday, in the capital of São Paulo, to map the votes and combine network strategies.
PT leaders reorganized functions and demanded that activists take to the streets daily until the 25th, when the second round vote will take place. This Thursday, Haddad went to Avenida Paulista, an area with a large flow of pedestrians, to leaflet.
"For every 'Bolsonaro' you see on the street, cast three votes for Lula and the campaign is over," Haddad told the audience. He was accompanied by councilor Luna Zarattini, elected federal deputy for the PT.
Like Tarcísio, the former Finance Minister was in Brasília at the beginning of the week to meet with Lula and other members of the campaign. It was agreed that he will take charge of coordination in the state. Marketer Otávio Antunes, who handled his campaign, will assist the president in Brasília.
Allies of the president who have a political base in São Paulo should concentrate actions in the state in the coming days. The Minister of the General Secretariat Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), for example, promotes an event in Praça Roosevelt, in the center of the capital, on Thursday night.
An appeal from several allies was for vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), who governed São Paulo four times, to be more present in campaign commitments in the state. Also this Thursday, he went for a walk in Paraisópolis, in the south of the capital.
Alckmin's agenda foresees his participation in religious events on Saturday (10) and a demonstration in Paulista on Sunday (11). On Monday (12), he will participate in a mass at the National Sanctuary of Aparecida in the morning.
A Catholic, the vice-president has good influence in religious circles and made statements in defense of Our Lady of Aparecida amid the controversy that surrounded the campaigns in the 1st round.
Although the president's campaign waited four days to resume street activities, PT members told the reporter that it was necessary to take a break to understand how to best take advantage of what the PT already had at its disposal in the state.
Last Friday, before the vote, the president of the PT, Edinho Silva, declared that "even in states defined in the 1st round, our campaign structure will not cease to exist".
The idea, now, is to reverse Flávio's advantage in places where there was greater abstention or where the difference in votes was very close. An example cited by a state leader was the region of Sapopemba, in the east of the capital of São Paulo, with 180 thousand voters, where Flávio obtained just 1.8 thousand more votes than Lula.
