MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula courting Brazil's biggest political party

Brazil's president, a former Marxist firebrand-turned-pragmatist, is allying himself with his country's biggest party, one to the right of center, promising it a share of government power and a united front in next year's local elections.

"(Lula) is following in the footsteps of his predecessors: joining forces with the country's most powerful political organization," political analyst Benicio Schmidt, a sociologist and professor at the University of Brasilia.

At a meeting on Monday, Lula proposed to the top leaders of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, or PMDB, that they link up with lawmakers from Lula's Workers Party in Congress.

The PMDB, which has a plurality in the Senate, the second-biggest bloc in the lower house and is the party controlling the largest number of municipal governments, was one of the main allies of Fernando Henrique Cardoso during his 1994-2002 presidential mandate.

Members of Congress belonging to Lula's Workers Party, known as the PT, that the invitation to the PMDB to support the administration is aimed at ensuring the passage of structural reforms the president is proposing to the legislature.

Currently, bills are before the legislature that would reform the tax and retirement systems, initiatives that Lula considers vital to Brazil's economic development.

According to legislators from the PT, negotiations between the administration and the PMDB are also aimed at ensuring that Lula's party wins the municipal elections in October 2004.

Schmidt, who described Lula as "frustrated," said that the administration had no other choice than to join forces with the PMDB, despite the party's historical differences with the president.

"This probable political association is being supported by a former labor union leader from the left, a rival of the PMDB on many occasions and in many areas," he added.

"What we are seeking is a 'strategic union' that would allow us to establish a long-term power base led by the PT, even if this costs us some Cabinet positions," said an administration spokesperson in Congress who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"What else can we do? We have a weak base in Congress, and aside from the initiatives we want to promote in the legislature, we can't forget future plans in other areas," said another important PT lawmaker in justifying future changes to the Cabinet.

"This negotiation will cost the PT dearly," Schmidt noted, adding that the PMDB is a "treacherous, big old beast, like a mastodon, and made up of so many factions defending different interests that any agreement that appears consensual is as solid as a cloud in the sky." He recalled that Cardoso was a victim of the PMDB's instability.

"Cardoso many times had to give in to pressure and bribery from the PMDB, even though it was part of the ruling coalition," Schmidt noted.

Lula himself is a witness to the lack of solidarity within the PMDB. During last year's presidential elections, many disgruntled members of that party supported his candidacy over that of Cardoso's choice, Jose Serra.

Schmidt observed that another risk of this "rapprochement" with the PMDB that began in November is the possible desertion of PT members to a new socialist party proposed by several disgruntled leftists who insist that the PT and Lula have abandoned the socialist principles they once espoused.

PT chairman Jose Genoino said the party had changed "just enough to meet the new challenges the country is facing." For his part, Lula, who had no comment on allegations of corruption within the PMDB, insisted he had never liked being labeled a "leftist."