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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000030 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR CRONIN 
STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN/LEZNY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR PGOV ETRD BR
SUBJECT: PMDB Leader Ponders Party's Electoral Options 
 
REF: (A) 05 Sao Paulo 1402; (B) Sao Paulo 1372 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but Unclassified - protect accordingly. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Summary: Federal Deputy Michel Temer, national 
president of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), 
believes that public disillusion with President Lula and the 
Workers' Party (PT) provides an opportunity for the PMDB to 
field its own candidate in the 2006 presidential election. 
However, party divisions and the lack of a compelling choice 
as a candidate could force the PMDB into an alliance with 
Lula's PT or the opposition PSDB. If Lula's polling numbers 
do not improve before the PMDB primaries in March, Temer 
said his party might nominate its own candidate.  This would 
still allow the party to forge an alliance with the PT or 
PSDB in a runoff, assuming that the PMDB candidate fails to 
make the second round.  Given its centrist orientation, the 
PMDB may hold the balance of votes between the two opposing 
forces.  It is also likely to remain a force at the local 
and state level.  Temer believes it has a chance to win as 
many as 14 gubernatorial races. End Summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
With Allies Like This . . . 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3.   (SBU) Michel Temer, a Federal deputy from Sao Paulo who 
served as president of the Chamber of Deputies from 1997 
through 2000, met January 9 with CG and poloffs to discuss 
the current political situation.  Lula's election, he said, 
had raised great hope among the Brazilian people, but his 
performance in office has been disappointing.  Temer 
criticized Lula's narrow vision and his excessive focus on 
social safety net programs that don't promote growth or 
economic development.  The PT had campaigned on one program 
and, once in office, had done the opposite of what it 
promised, which Temer characterized as electoral fraud. 
Worse, some PT leaders had stolen state money, not for 
personal gain, but to expand the party's power, and had thus 
fomented a great deal of popular disillusion. 
 
------------------------- 
PMDB Perceives an Opening 
------------------------- 
 
¶4.   (SBU) This reality, Temer continued, opens an 
opportunity for the PMDB.  The party currently holds nine 
statehouses and has the second-highest number of federal 
deputies (after the PT), along with a great many mayoralties 
and city council and state legislative seats.  Polls show 
that voters are tired of both the PT and the main opposition 
party, the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB).  For 
example, a recent poll showed former governor (and PMDB 
state chairman) Orestes Quercia leading in the race for Sao 
Paulo state governor. 
 
----------------------- 
Divisions Dog the Party 
----------------------- 
 
¶5.   (SBU) Asked why the PMDB remains so divided, Temer said 
the reasons were both historical and related to the nature 
of Brazilian political parties.  The PMDB grew out of the 
Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) under the military 
dictatorship, which operated as an umbrella group for 
legitimate opposition to the military dictatorship.  After 
the restoration of democracy, some members left the PMDB to 
form new parties (such as the PT and PSDB), but many of 
those who remained now act as power brokers at the local and 
regional level.  Thus the PMDB has no real unifying national 
identity but rather an umbrella organization for regional 
"caciques" or bosses.  Temer noted that the PMDB is not the 
only divided party.  Although there are 28 political parties 
in Brazil, most of them do not represent an ideology or a 
particular line of political thinking that would support a 
national vision. 
 
---------------------------- 
 
SAO PAULO 00000030  002 OF 003 
 
 
PMDB Primaries Set for March 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6.   (SBU) Temer confirmed press reports that he is seeking 
to move the March 5 primary date to a date later in the 
month.  (Note: March 31 is the deadline for executives and 
Ministers to resign their offices if they plan to run for 
public office.  End Note.)  There will be some 20,000 
electors, he said, including all PMDB members who hold 
electoral office (federal and state deputies, governors, 
mayors, vice-governors and -mayors, and other elected 
municipal officials) as well as delegates chosen at state 
conventions. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Lula's Numbers Will Drive PMDB Strategy 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.   (SBU) If, between now and the primary, the Lula 
government's standing in the polls improves, it is still 
possible the PMDB will seek an electoral alliance with Lula 
and the PT, Temer said.  If not, the PMDB will run its own 
candidate.  So far, Rio de Janeiro ex-governor Anthony 
Garotinho has been working the hardest, reaching out to the 
whole country in search of support.  But there is resistance 
to him from within the PMDB, in part due to his populist 
image, in part because there appears to be a ceiling to his 
support.  Germano Rigotto, governor of Rio Grande do Sul 
(reftels) is a possible candidate, though he is still not 
well known outside the south.  Nelson Jobim, a judge on the 
Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) who has announced his 
intention to step down, is another possibility; however, he 
can't campaign until he leaves the Tribunal, and he may not 
have time to attract the support necessary to win the 
primary. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
PMDB's Fallback - PT or PSDB in Second Round 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.   (SBU) Temer was confident that despite its current 
division, the PMDB will unite for the election, whether in 
support of its own candidate or in alliance with another 
party.  If it runs a candidate who fails to make it to the 
second round, the party will seek to negotiate an alliance 
with one of the two finalists.  He noted that the PMDB had 
supported the government of PSDB former president Fernando 
Henrique Cardoso, and said there should be a "re-fusion" of 
the two parties into a permanent grand alliance.  The PMDB 
would have no problem with either Sao Paulo Mayor Jose Serra 
or Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin, who are 
competing for the PSDB nomination.  In 2002, the PMDB 
supported Serra against Lula. 
 
¶9.   (SBU) Asked about the party's program, Temer indicated 
that the PMDB favors policies to support economic growth. 
It has no objection to the Free Trade Area of the Americas 
(FTAA).  It would prefer to see Mercosul strengthened so as 
to negotiate FTAA as a bloc, but the trend appears to be 
moving the other way. 
 
------------------------------ 
Comment: PMDB As Power Broker? 
------------------------------ 
 
¶10.  (SBU) For now, the PMDB is keeping its options open. 
Though Temer didn't mention it, the party's leadership is 
waiting to see whether the "verticalizacao" rule will remain 
in force for the 2006 elections.  This rule, decreed by a 
2002 decision of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), 
dictates that electoral alliances at the national level must 
be replicated in races for governors and federal deputies. 
The Senate passed a measure repealing the rule, and the 
lower chamber is expected to vote on it shortly, with 
prospects uncertain.  There is also a legal challenge to the 
rule pending which the TSE will likely take up in February. 
The PMDB wants to know the rules of the game before deciding 
on possible alliances, since most observers believe that a 
 
SAO PAULO 00000030  003 OF 003 
 
 
PMDB presidential candidate would not fare well under the 
current system of "verticalizacao."  Temer appeared open to 
the possibility of an alliance with either the PT or the 
PSDB, or to a stand-alone PMDB candidate.  Given its 
centrist orientation, the PMDB may hold the balance of votes 
between Lula's PT and the opposition PSDB, and thus bears 
watching closely in the months ahead. End Comment. 
 
¶11.  (U) Biographic Note: Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia 
has served as federal deputy from Sao Paulo since 1987, 
except for a two-year period (1993-94) when he was Secretary 
for Public Security in the Sao Paulo state government.  He 
studied at the University of Sao Paulo and earned a 
Doctorate in Law from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. 
From 1984 through 1986 he was the state's Prosecutor 
General.  He served as the PMDB's leader in the Camara de 
Deputados 1995-97 and as President of the Camara 1997-2000. 
He was national president of the PMDB 2001-03 and 2004- 
present. 
 
¶12.  (U) This cable was cleared/coordinated with Embassy 
Brasilia. 
 
McMullen