Brazil’s presidential vote will go to second round on October 28, and it looks like the PT’s candidate, Fernando Haddad, is on the verge of a big victory. If he is elected, Haddad would become Brazil’s first leftist president in a quarter century.
A look at Haddad’s platform
Haddad started off saying he would not implement a national minimum wage. “It’s not a priority,” he said. “We can only be satisfied with what the market provides.”
“We should be able to live without a minimum wage,” he added. “If you can live without one, you are on the right road.”
Haddad, a union leader, supported the nationalization and privatization of all industries in Brazil. After years of corruption, he wants “the state to run the economy and create jobs.”
But while they may be on the right track, his ideas seem a bit too extreme for many to take seriously:
“I will not take advantage of the state’s resources.”
“The state is for those who work the hardest from morning to night.”
“I am not part of the government, therefore I won’t spend the state’s money.”
But his policies seem to fall in line with Brazilian sentiment, and they are backed by the PT. The party has made Haddad its choice for the second round, and is putting out a list of its own candidates for the first round.
PT candidate in second round
One of the candidates has to be supported by Haddad, so it makes sense to have him. But who?
One of the candidates is former Brazilian vice president and current secretary for International Cooperation of the PT, Hamilton Mourão.
Mourão is a member of the PT’s International Development Committee and a former federal minister of justice, who once suggested that the country should
