José Serra: Pro-government at the last minute

José Serra - Picture courtesy of flickr user amfdesigner

Valdo Cruz-Folha de S.Paulo, 04/27/10

Is opposition presidential candidate José Serra projecting an image that resembles President Lula’s administration more than President Lula’s preferred candidate, Dilma Rousseff? Even allies of the Workers’ Party (PT) campaign said that Serra’s ideologies may be more aligned with Lula’s government than Rousseff’s, which is everything that the PT campaign tried to avoid.

An article by Valdo Cruz in the Folha de S.Paulo analyzes Serra’s campaign strategy, saying that the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) candidate recognizes that it is impossible to run a campaign that attacks a president with a 70% approval rating. Serra’s strategy has worked. According to the latest opinion poll, out of the people interviewed that declared they would vote for Serra, 7% believed that he was President Lula’s chosen candidate.

The PT campaign believes that the confusion over President Lula’s preferred candidate will come to an end once Lula begins his television campaigns asking people to vote for Rousseff.

Dilma Rousseff - Picture courtesy of flickr Dilma Rousseff

This means that there are still a large number of voters who are unaware that Rousseff is Lula’s preferred candidate—a detail indicating that there is a lot of room for Rousseff to grow in the polls. Lula, aware of this fact, exudes optimism regarding his chosen candidate’s chances at presidency. Some members of the PT party believe that Lula has demonstrated an exaggerated confidence and would like to keep his feet more on the ground.

The truth is, however, that in this moment of the campaign, Serra has been doing better than Rousseff. He has demonstrated tranquility and delivered the message that he has more experience than the PT candidate to be the next Brazilian president.

Meanwhile, Rousseff keeps involving herself in controversy. Rousseff’s team, however, believes that her campaign remains on track. The PT’s goal for Rousseff is to make sure that she keeps at least her current level in the polls, which is about 30% of voter intentions.

Read the original article in full (in Portuguese)…

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