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The Landless Workers' Movement of Brazil (MST) and the Confederation of Rural Workers (Contag) declared their support for the reelection of President Dilma Roussef (Workers' Party, center-left) on Friday, along with 13 other social movements that are united together in the Via Campesina federation.
“We have to defeat the neo-liberal candidacy of Aecio Neves because it represents the right wing and fascist forces of the country,” said Via Campesina in a statement. The MST and Contag both confirmed this position to the press agency AFP.
In the document, the federation affirmed that the “victory of Neves would mean a setback in social policies, a greater criminalization of social movements ... as well as a greater concentration of land.”
As for the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), also belonging to Via Campesina, it refused its support, “We do not support any of the candidates,” Paulino Montejo, coordinator of the APIB, told AFP.
The MST has criticized the government in the past for allegedly slowing down agrarian reform, although it has been traditionally supportive since the creation of the PT in 1980, which it helped to found.
Rousseff and Aecio Neves (right wing) will be competing in the second round of the presidential elections on October 26. According to the latest polls, four days ago, Rousseff is leading for the first time since October 5, with a small avantage of 51 percent.
Neves has received the support of many candidates defeated in the first round, including the third place taker, Marina Silva (Brazilian Socialist Party, PSB).
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