Salles denies breaking with Bolsonaro, but criticizes PL's "centrão DNA"
Federal deputy Ricardo Salles (Novo) stated, in an interview with Backstage CNN this Monday (15), that there is no rupture between him and Jair Bolsonaro, nor with Bolsonarism. According to Salles, his departure from the PL was motivated by disagreements with what he called the "DNA of the centrão", personified, in his assessment, by party president Valdemar Costa Neto.
"I don't agree with this adherence to the centrão's stance. Valdemar Costa Neto is the ready-made centrão, the centrão that we see involved in all the scandals in Brazil over the last 40 years", stated the deputy.
He listed cases such as betting schemes, the INSS and Banco Master, in addition to stating that the center is trying to appropriate the right to grow electorally.
Salles also argued that, despite the PL's most voted deputies being Bolsonarists, such as Eduardo Bolsonaro, Carla Zambelli and Nikolas Ferreira, the effective command of the party would be in the hands of the so-called "Valdemaristas". "With its DNA as a center of old politics", he stated.
Migration to the New Party
The deputy explained that he realized, during the electoral process for the São Paulo City Council, that candidates with no connection to Valdemar Costa Neto would not have space to compete for majority positions within the PL.
At the time, Salles stated that he reached between 18% and 19% in the polls for the race for mayor, close to the then candidate for re-election Ricardo Nunes. Even so, according to him, Valdemar chose to support Nunes, preserving political relations with the city hall structure.
Faced with this scenario, Salles migrated to the Partido Novo with the guarantee of running for the Senate or, eventually, the state government, if Tarcísio de Freitas emerged as a candidate for President.
"The best company that the PL can have, contrary to what Eduardo [Bolsonaro] said, with more decent and prepared people, who truly believe in the values they say they believe in, is the Novo", defended the deputy.
Salles is a pre-candidate for the Federal Senate in the state of São Paulo and argued that his political trajectory precedes the period in which he was part of the federal government. "Before being Bolsonaro's minister, I was Secretary of State here in São Paulo more than once", he stated.
Flávio and Vorcaro
Regarding the revelations involving Flávio Bolsonaro and the Banco Master case, Salles criticized Flávio's proximity to Daniel Vorcaro, including a visit after the former banker's house arrest.
The deputy said it was "inadmissible" to maintain this level of intimacy with someone who, according to him, was already widely known for irregularities at the time of the contacts. "It was very bad for Flávio Bolsonaro," said Salles.
Still, the deputy admits that he prefers Jair Bolsonaro's son to Lula, evaluating that the group that would take care of the economy in a Flávio candidacy would be better than that of the current government.
"But this posture and this promiscuity, this closeness, it is undesirable and it is absurd, it is. There is no way to deny that", he concluded.
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Source: CNN