federal deputy Esio Neves (PSDB) he publicly admits that he dreams of returning to the Senate as a representative of the state of Minas Gerais, a position he held when he was at his political peak. Eight years after falling 3.5 million votes short of becoming President of the Republic, he hit bottom amid allegations of corruption and loss of prominence in his state, but now he’s rehearsing his comeback.

“Now I am a candidate for federal deputies (…). But I have to watch the picture develop, listen to colleagues from all over the state, so that I can make a final decision, maybe in June. [sobre qual cargo concorrer]”, he told the newspaper. Timefrom Belo Horizonte, in an interview this Thursday, 9.

The ambition is confirmed by the latest voter poll data published by DataTempo, an institute owned by the same portal. In it, Esio has 24.8% of the vote in the stimulated scenario against 11.6% for Cleitinho Azevedo (PSC); 5.7% for Sara Azevedo (PSOL); 4.8% from Marcelo Alvaro Antonio (Poland); 4.2% from Alexander Silveira (PSD); and 1.8% from Marcelo Haro (PP). The data was collected from 27 May to 1 June and the poll was registered with the Higher Electoral Court (TSE) under number MG-05705/2022.

Polls conducted in May by the Paraná Pesquisas and Real Time Big Data institutions also indicated the leadership of the toucan in the dispute for a seat in the Senate.

If the desire is confirmed, it will be the resumption of good political times after difficult years. Esio has experienced remarkable growth since entering politics in 1987 until the middle of the last decade. He was a federal deputy until 2002, when he was elected governor of Minas – and re-elected for a second term in 2006. During this period, he was the main political leader in the state of Minas Gerais, the second largest electoral college in the country.

In 2010, he ran for the Senate and won again, serving his term until 2019. In the meantime, he applied for the Palacio do Planalto in 2014 and was almost successful. She received almost 35 million votes in the first round and 51 million in the second – not enough to defeat Dilma Rousseff, who was re-elected with 51.6% of the vote in the most bitter election since the redemocratization.

“I leave the Congress every day at night and sometimes I walk there in front of the ramp (from the Palacio do Planalto) and say: “We were close”. I did what I could, and I’m sorry, of course, personally, but I’m so sorry for the country. We would have the greatest government in the history of this country. Not for my merits, but for the fact that I understood what needed to be done, ”said the congressman in the same interview. Time.

The decadence began after the failure of the presidential elections. Neves didn’t take the defeat well, cast doubt on the polls, and pushed hard for Dilma’s impeachment two years later. In 2017, he lost the post of national president of the PSDB following the first exposure of Operation Lava-Jato, which involved his name, by Carlos Alexandre de Sousa Rocha, an associate of money changer Alberto Youssef.

Since then, he has also been mentioned in plea deals by former senator Delcidio do Amaral and businessmen Josley and Wesley Batista, businessmen from JBS. One Odebrecht executive even accused him of running a kickback scheme when he was governor. His sister Andrea Neves was arrested by federal police in May 2017 on suspicion that she had asked Josley for money on Esio’s behalf. On the same day, STF Minister Edson Fachin ordered the removal of the senator from his post.

Based on the allegations, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) convicted Esio Neves of passive corruption and obstruction of justice. However, in October 2017, the Senate floor overturned the STF’s decision to remove the senator by a vote of 44 to 26.

Not to risk losing his privileged forum, Esio ran for federal deputy in 2018, when he was elected by 106,000 votes. He carried out his mandate cautiously, still under the weight of accusations from the public ministry. In March of this year, he was acquitted by a Sao Paulo court on charges of accepting a bribe of 2 million reais from JBS.

During the recession, Esio lost the political prominence he had in Minas Gerais. Romeu Zema (Novo), who was elected governor in 2018, and Alexander Kalil (PSD), who won the municipal elections in Belo Horizonte in 2016 and 2020, took on its leading role – and by extension, that of the PSDB. Zema and Today Kalil becomes the main candidate for the government of Minas Gerais.

Esio recently resumed a role as one of the strongest voices against the national candidacy of fellow believer João Doria in PSDB-led meetings in the midst of a Third Way Ticket Crisis. He also defended the PSDB ticket in Planalto, which currently seems difficult with the appointment of Tasso Gereissati as deputy to Simone Tebet (MDB). But, apparently, the miner did not stop dreaming big.