Reelected governor of Minas Gerais, first to give his support to Bolsonaro for the second round in Brazil

The re-elected governor of the state of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, announced Tuesday that he will support Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, in the second round of the elections, set in the calendar for October 30.

This is the first public support Bolsonaro has received from some of the politicians who were playing for office in last Sunday’s elections, in which not only the race for the Planalto Palace was decided, but also the new composition of Congress and state governments.

Zema, of the Novo (New) party — a formation of marked libertarian character — has assured after meeting with Bolsonaro that the country is living a moment in which it is necessary to “walk forward” and therefore believes “much more” in the proposal of the still president of Brazil.

“We know that in many things we converge and in others we do not. But it is the moment in which Brazil needs to walk forward and I believe more in Bolsonaro’s proposal than in that of the adversary,” explained Zema, who was reelected on Sunday with just over 56 percent of the vote.

Zema has pointed out that the “tragedy” he encountered when he took office as governor of Minas Gerais in 2019 after four years of Workers’ Party (PT) government has been one of the reasons why he has opted for Bolsonaro, who has thanked his new partner for his support.

Novo, whose candidacy for the Presidency of Brazil headed by Felipe D’Ávila barely reached 600,000 votes, has issued a statement on Tuesday in which although they stress their opposition to Lula da Silva and the PT, they release their voters and affiliates to vote according to their “conscience” and “party principles.”

Aware that Simone Tebet and Ciro Gomes are more likely to announce their support in the second round for Lula, Bolsonaro clings to the conservative political leaders who managed to impose themselves in the local elections.

Historically the results in Minas Gerais are usually a reflection of what will happen in the elections. On this occasion Lula prevailed with 48.29 percent of the votes, against Bolsonaro’s 43.60 percent, figures almost identical to the one and the other obtained at the national level. In the capital, Belo Horizonte, it was the Brazilian president who won by a narrow margin over the PT candidate.