Senator Marta Suplicy quits Workers' Party
Senator Marta Suplicy 
Senator Marta Suplicy requested on Tuesday (Apr 28) her withdrawal from the Workers' Party (PT), claiming that she “cannot bear to live” amid the corruption scandals involving the political party.
“For me, as a member of the party and a politician elected by the people, the crimes under investigation, which are profusely denounced by the press on a daily basis, are not just reason for outrage, but also for great embarrassment,” she writes in her letter. Suplicy complains that the party's program and bill of principles “had never been so harshly dishonored by the very members of the party,” and that its directors have become unable to debate and listen to its members.
The São Paulo-elected senator was also a federal deputy from 1995 to 1998, and the mayor of the city of São Paulo from 2000, having failed to be reelected in 2004. She took office as minister of tourism in the first tenure of former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. She was also chief o culture from 2010 to 2014, in the first Rousseff administration.
A member of the PT ever since 1981, Suplicy claims in her letter that she has been “isolated and stigmatized” by PT leaders, and has had her work as a congresswoman and a party member constrained by fellow partisans.
“For decades I believed in, and gave the best of me to, the pursuit of ideals, which, my errors and successes notwithstanding, did not diverge from an unquestionable and relentless ethical orientation. Today, however, I no longer feel in the condition to cooperate with something that does not make sense to me or to millions of Brazilians anymore,” her letter reads.
She also makes it cleat that she does not plan to give up her position as a senator, which may be legally requested by the PT if the party's board of directors so desires. In the text, she points out that she was elected with 8 million votes, and that her faithfulness is devoted to her work as a congresswoman above everything else.
Marta Suplicy's imminent departure from the PT had been taken as a given ever since she left the Ministry of Culture strongly critical of the government. After she took office in the Senate, she went back to criticizing the actions taken in Rousseff's administration and the decision to appoint Juca Ferreira as her successor in the ministry. Suplicy has not yet announced with which political party she intends to affiliate.
Brunho Bocchini contributed to this story.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Senator Marta Suplicy quits Workers' Party
