Silva eyes Brazil’s election with Greens

Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister, left the ruling Workers’ Party on Wednesday, paving the way for her to run for president as a candidate of the Green Party in October next year.

Ms Silva, who had been a leading figure in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s leftwing PT, has been openly discussing a switch from the PT, the part she helped found, to the Greens since last week.

Should she run as the Green candidate next year, she is likely to split the pro-government vote in what had been expected to be a two-sided race between government and opposition candidates.

Her move is likely to aggravate a growing crisis for the government and the PT.

On Wednesday, Flávio Arns, a PT senator, said he would leave the party after his PT colleagues in the Senate voted to dismiss allegations of nepotism and corruption against José Sarney, president of the Senate.

Mr Sarney, who denies all wrongdoing, is a leading figure in the catch-all PMDB, the biggest party in Congress and in the governing coalition.

Mr Lula da Silva has thrown his weight behind Mr Sarney during several months of scandal over “secret acts” – laws passed but not published by the Senate – by which Mr Sarney allegedly benefited family and friends. Analysts say Mr Sarney’s support will be vital in Mr Lula da Silva’s bid to have Dilma Rousseff, his senior minister, elected as his successor next year.

The president’s stance has split his party. PT senators recently issued a statement calling on Mr Sarney to step down temporarily during an inquiry into the allegations. But on Wednesday they voted not to take any action.

Aloizio Mercadante, PT leader in the Senate, said on Tuesday he would resign the Senate leadership rather than ask colleagues to vote in Mr Sarney’s favour. But on Wednesday evening, after the vote, he said he would stay. “My real wish was to leave the PT leadership,” he told reporters, “but I am not going to contribute to a worsening of the crisis [in the party].”

Ms Silva resigned from the environment ministry in May 2008 after clashing with Ms Rousseff over environmental licences for big infrastructure projects.

“I have never regarded myself as a victim of minister Dilma,” she said on Wednesday. We both have our views and they are both legitimate, and Brazilian society must judge who is correct.”