Secretary of International Relations of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)

We were in the middle of an electoral process politically polarized into two opposing fields. It was essentially a direct battle between popular, democratic and patriotic forces on the one side and right-wing, conservative and liberal forces on the other side. The broad coalition supporting Dilma Rousseff’s candidacy, with eleven left-wing and center parties, is the largest alliances ever achieved to support a left-wing candidacy in the history of Brazil. However, on October 31, the day of the runoff in the presidential elections, it faced José Serra’s candidacy, representing a strong right with the militant support of the monopolist media and anti-communist and reactionary sectors.
Dilma Rousseff won the first round of the elections on October 3 with 47% of valid ballots. Serra won 33% of the votes and Green Party’s Marina Silva won 19% of the votes for president. Marina Silva’s candidacy pushed the elections to a runoff and objectively benefited the right-wing candidacy. Marina Silva offered an anti-development and morally conservative discourse and her economic assistants showed neoliberal inclinations. Other far-left candidacies won 1% of the ballots, an insignificant performance demonstrating that the true alternative is to strengthen the revolutionary left inside the broad coalition supporting Dilma Rousseff.
Below: a table displaying the result of the first round of the presidential elections.
VOTES FOR PRESIDENT – 1st round

Candidate Party / Coalition Valid votes
DILMA ROUSSEFF * PT – Workers Party
PMDB – Brazilian Democratic Movement Party
*PCdoB – Communist Party of Brazil
* PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party
* PDT – Democratic Labor Party
PSC – Social Christian Party
PR – Republican Party
PRB – Brazilian Republican Party and others
46.91%
JOSÉ SERRA PSDB – Brazilian Social Democracy Party
DEM – Democrats
*PPS – Social People’s Party and others
32.61%
MARINA SILVA PV – Green Party 19.33%
PLÍNIO ARRUDA SAMPAIO PSOL – Socialism and Freedom Party 0.87%
IVAN PINHEIRO * PCB – Brazilian Communist Party 0.04%
OTHERS 0.24%
TOTAL 100%
* Members of the São Paulo Forum

Presidential elections headed for a runoff
As Dilma Rousseff did not win half of the valid ballots, the election headed for a runoff. Supported by a broad coalition of forces and by president Lula, whose administration is considered “excellent” or “good” by 83% of the population, Dilma Rousseff could have won the election in the first round. The runoff is the result of several factors, but mainly of the sordid campaign of lies, prejudice and hate promoted by the opposition and the monopolist media against Dilma Rousseff and president Lula. The right-wing opposition conceals its real program, characterized by privatization and anti-popular and anti-national policies, and confounded part of the people with a falsely moralizing mermaid spell marked by blatant religious obscurantism.

The left and the Dilma Rousseff coalition have grown in state governments and in the National Congress
In the elections for 27 state governments, 18 were decided in the first round and 9 state governments were disputed in the runoff. 16 of the elected governors are members of the coalitions supporting Dilma Rousseff (11 left-wing and 5 center) and 11 are members of the right-wing opposition.
The coalition supporting Dilma Rousseff won about 70% of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and of the 81 seats in the Federal Senate. We achieved a qualitative change in the correlation of forces inside the National Congress, although the left amounts to approximately only one third of each legislative chamber.
In the Parliament, the left is composed by members of the São Paulo Forum, namely, the Workers’ Party (PT), with 88 deputies and 13 senators, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), with 15 deputies and 2 senators, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), with 34 deputies and 4 senators, and the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), with 28 deputies and 4 senators.

Below: the composition of the new National Congress.

DEPUTIES

PARTY VOTES FOR THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES (%) ELECTED DEPUTIES
* PT – Workers Party 16.74 88
PMDB – Brazilian Democratic Movement Party 13.00 79
PSDB – Brazilian Social Democracy Party 11.82 53
PR – Republican Party 7.58 41
DEM – Democrats 7.57 43
* PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party 7.10 34
PP – Progressive Party 6.56 41
* PDT – Democratic Labor Party 5.02 28
PTB – Brazilian Labor Party 4.19 21
PV – Green Party 3.85 15
PSC – Social Christian Party 3.18 17
* PCdoB – Communist Party of Brazil 2.85 15
*PPS – Socialist People’s Party 2.63 12
PRB – Brazilian Republican Party 1.82 8
PSOL – Socialism and Freedom Party 1.18 3
PMN – National Mobilization Party 1.13 4
* PCB – Brazilian Communist Party 0.06 0
Other parties 3.72 11
TOTAL 100 % 513
* Members of the São Paulo Forum

SENATORS
PARTY VOTES FOR THE FEDERAL SENATE (%) ELECTED SENATORS TOTAL SENATORS IN 2011
* PT – Workers Party 23.12 11 13
PSDB – Brazilian Social Democracy Party 18.13 5 11
PMDB – Brazilian Democratic Movement Party 14.08 16 20
* PCdoB – Communist Party of Brazil 7.37 1 2
DEM – Democrats 6.00 2 6
PP – Progressive Party 5.38 4 5
PTB – Brazilian Labor Party 4.69 1 6
* PPS – Socialist People’s Party 3.97 1 2
* PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party 3.60 3 3
PV – Green Party 2.96 0 0
PR – Republican Party 2.73 3 4
PRB – Brazilian Republican Party 1.96 1 1
PSOL – Socialism and Freedom Party 1.78 2 2
* PDT – Democratic Labor Party 1.43 2 4
PSC – Social Christian Party 0.73 1 1
PMN – National Mobilization Party 0.14 1 1
* PCB – Brazilian Communist Party 0.09 0 0
Other parties 1.84 0 0
TOTAL 100% 54 81
* Members of the São Paulo Forum

The runoff decided an election of strategic importance
The true “political war” that characterized the first round of the dispute intensified in the runoff and Dilma Rousseff was elected the first woman president of Brazil. Candidate Dilma Rousseff won the run off with 56% against 44% of valid votes obtained by the right-wing forces.
VOTES FOR PRESIDENT – 2nd round

Candidate Party / Coalition Valid votes
DILMA ROUSSEFF * PT – Workers Party
PMDB – Brazilian Democratic Movement Party
*PCdoB – Communist Party of Brazil
* PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party
* PDT – Democratic Labor Party
PSC – Social Christian Party
PR – Republican Party
PRB – Brazilian Republican Party and others
56.05%
JOSÉ SERRA PSDB – Brazilian Social Democracy Party
DEM – Democrats
*PPS – Social People’s Party and others
43.95%
TOTAL 100%
* Members of the São Paulo Forum

Among the reasons leading to the third victory of popular forces in 2010 (the two first ones being the victories of president Lula in 2002 and 2006) is the fact that the differences between the programs of the two candidacies became clearer for the people. Dilma Rousseff fought for the program that is being put into practice in the Lula administration, which turned Brazil into a respected nation in the international arena with an anti-imperialist foreign policy defending world peace, Latin America integration and national sovereignty. That program gave greater liberties to popular struggles, broadened democracy and economic and social development and improved the living standards of workers. Dilma Rousseff was a leading person in the success of Lula’s government and, as a candidate, declared that continuity in this case is “to advance, advance, advance” with changes.
During the runoff, Renato Rabelo, national president of PCdoB, declared “we are not facing any given battle, but a political battle that has a strategic character for our country.” The communists, as part of the Brazilian left and our coalition, faced the task of making a more vibrant campaign with greater participation of the militant cadres and progressive sectors of the people.
Along with the party’s militant forces, organizations of the popular movements also took part in the dispute, among which unions such as the Brazilian Workers Central (CTB) and the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), student organizations such as the National Students Union (UNE) and the Brazilian Union of Secondary Students (UBES), and farm workers from the Brazilian Farm Workers Union (CONTAG) and Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), which supported with their great strength Dilma Rousseff’s candidacy in the runoff.

PCdoB’s electoral result and perspectives for communists
In the last parliamentary elections PCdoB has grown continuously and steadily. When compared to 2006, the votes for PCdoB increased 41%, reaching 3% of total votes in the Chamber of Deputies. The Party went from 13 to 15 federal deputies and we achieved the merit of keeping the greatest proportion of women among the parties in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Communist Party of Brazil was the 4th most voted party in the Senate and now has 2 senators. PCdoB won 7% of the votes for Senate. PCdoB disputed the government of the state of Maranhão with a candidate that did not go to a runoff due to a very small difference in the number of votes.
The popular forces won the elections in Brazil. PCdoB will fight for the success of the Dilma Rousseff administration in the execution of the advanced measures listed in her program. In the course of this journey the Communist Party of Brazil will try to reinforce its role and political influence among the Brazilian people and develop in ideological and organizational terms.
PCdoB will keep on fighting to allow workers and all the Brazilian people to turn the revolutionary hope of a socialist Brazil into a reality.

Renato Rabelo highlights inauguration’s unique meaning
“Today Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration as the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil has a unique meaning for the Brazilian politics,” affirmed Renato Rabelo, president of the Communist Party of Brazil.

Firstly, according to the communist leader, it is the “third consecutive national victory of the democratic, progressive and left-wing forces, maintaining the political cycle that Lula opened in 2002.”
One must also take into account the fact that “Dilma Rousseff’s election takes place as the outcome of a successful democratic and popular government with broad popular support.”
The third point stressed by Rabelo is the fact that “now Brazil finds itself in a favorable situation for a fast development in a world undergoing a systemic crisis of capitalism, heading towards a transition in the global political system.”
“President Dilma Rousseff acknowledges the fact that the essence of continuity in her government is advancing, which, according to our point of view, is the continuation of greater changes towards an advanced, sovereign, democratic and popular government,” he added.
Lastly, he mentioned that “the victory of the first woman President of the Republic after the successes of the first blue-collar worker in that high political post has a remarkable meaning for the civilizing advance in the history of the Brazilian nation.”

By the editorial staff of “Vermelho” – www.vermelho.org.br