Mayor and president of PT in Minas expose differences

Time has closed on the Workers’ Party (PT) in Minas Gerais. Disagreements over the direction of the party have placed supporters on opposite sides, indicating a split. On the one hand, the representative of the third largest city in Minas Gerais, the mayor of Contagem, Marília Campos, also one of the PT’s most prominent names in the state, says she is upset with the party’s separation from the population, social movements and city ​​halls. On the other, the president of the party in Minas Gerais, state deputy Cristiano Silveira, defends the PT’s actions and says that he was never approached by the mayor to discuss her relationship with the party.

Marília does not attribute her discontent to a “split” in the party and adds: she has no intention of leaving the party, despite having received several invitations, according to her. “I fight to strengthen the PT,” she says. However, she received harsh criticism for her position.

For the head of the Contagem Executive, the PT has distanced itself from its origins. Having been in the party for more than 40 years, she sees herself as entitled to criticize changes in course. “As a historical activist, and with the convictions that I have, I not only have the right, but the duty to establish criticisms in accordance with the convictions that I have and that were educated, including, in this historical relationship that I have with the PT”, declared Marília to Estado de Minas.

“What I have with the PT is a distancing from the political strategy, from the relationship that the party has with municipal governments of not dialoguing, of not establishing this relationship. Perhaps because the profile of the leadership and the profile of political representations are not very universal, there are many representations of segments”, she also said.

In the opinion of the mayor of Contagem, the PT has distanced itself from the struggles of social movements and unions, but her main criticism is in relation to municipal distancing. “PT has already had a very large number of city halls. How many city halls does the PT have today? In Minas Gerais, the PT has two large city halls, Contagem and Juiz de Fora. We already govern Belo Horizonte, Ipatinga, several large and medium-sized cities, not just in Minas. This is a sign of weakening,” she highlighted.

Marília also said that there is a lack of voices in the Legislature committed to municipalism, which, in her assessment, is the one that has a direct relationship with the people and the population. “The PT is wrong in its strategy to debate what the best policy is.”

“There is no split. I am a person who has convictions and I am at a stage in my life where I am willing to hold on to my convictions no matter who it hurts. I have an obligation to my city, if someone penalizes my city I will scream, because it is my city that I have a commitment to”, he said.

“NO INFORMATION”

The PT president reacted to Marília Campos’ position in relation to the criticism of her departure from the party. Cristiano Silveira disagrees with the mayor’s statements and states that she is distant from the party and that he was not contacted at any time to discuss her relationship with the party.

“I think that Mayor Marília is very distant from the party because she has no information. We have held several events with our mayors, I am constantly contacted by them to talk about strategy and elections. There is a movement of important actors coming, of consolidation of our current mayors who will be there around this process. So, I think Marília is speaking only for herself and is trying to create a situation of generality”, said Cristiano Silveira to Estado de Minas.

“Another thing is the agendas that we have always created with social movements, popular movements, social struggles, especially here in the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais. So, I think that Marília, if it is her wish, needs to return to being more active in the party”, added the president of the state PT.

When stating that there is a certain distance between Marília Campos and the party, Cristiano Silveira still questions the interest of the mayor’s criticism. “I very much doubt her intentions in really wanting to discuss her relationship with the party. Especially because I, as president of the party, was never approached by her, as an interlocutor, in order to request, for example, an agenda with the leadership of PT de Minas. So, she wants to discuss the relationship with the party in the press, and I highly doubt these intentions. The party is curious to know what her intention is with this game. It’s not clear to us what she wants”, highlighted the president of PT-MG.