Salles Steps Aside as São Paulo’s Right Seeks a United Senate Front

Salles Steps Aside as São Paulo’s Right Seeks a United Senate Front
Ricardo Salles, a federal lawmaker from Novo, has withdrawn from the race for one of São Paulo’s two Senate seats and endorsed André do Prado of PL and Guilherme Derrite of PP. The announcement was made alongside Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a move presented by the candidates as an effort to prevent a split in votes on the political right.

Salles framed the decision in national terms, arguing that personal differences had become secondary to what he called a larger objective. He warned of “a risk of a catastrophe” should President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva be reelected, and said that differences of opinion should be set aside. De Freitas similarly described the arrangement as important for their political camp, saying Salles had stepped aside to help secure “two seats in the Senate.”

The left-leaning account of the contest gives a more electoral explanation for the withdrawal. It notes that Salles’s candidacy had failed to gain momentum and that he had trailed both his newly endorsed rivals and candidates Marina Silva and Simone Tebet in recent surveys. In one Datafolha poll cited by the report, Salles registered 4%, against 15% for Silva, 14% for Tebet and 12% each for Derrite and do Prado.

That account also highlights the tensions masked by the new alliance: Salles had previously argued that do Prado did not represent the right because of his legislative alliances. The right-leaning report likewise recalls Salles’s criticism of do Prado as a product of a centrist political arrangement, but treats the withdrawal as a practical response to a divided field.

Commentator Rodrigo Constantino welcomed the move as an example for other prospective candidates, writing: “Salles was great! Sebastião and Zema should do the same. Everyone against the PT!” Salles also said he would support Romeu Zema in the presidential race, while leaving open support for a first-round alliance with Flávio Bolsonaro if Zema chose that path.

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