Santa Teresa, in Espírito Santo, and São João Batista, in Santa Catarina, compete for the title of pioneer city of Italian immigration in Brazil, but they agree on at least one thing: massive support for the president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in his campaign for re-election.
In the Espírito Santo municipality of 24 thousand inhabitants, officially recognized as a pioneer of Italian immigration in the country, the former Army captain received 59,13% of the votes, against 33,54% for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), a result that would give victory in the first round to the current president.
“Santa Teresa is a conservative city, it has a history of not electing the PT, and Bolsonaro is a person who carries this issue of conservatism more”, the Italian-Brazilian tells ANSA Thiago Roldi, councilor in the municipality and candidate for deputy in the Italian Parliament in 2018 for the College of South America.
He says that Santa Teresa even had a pro-Bolsonaro motorcade called by a local businessman and which brought together more than 200 cars. “Here there is a lot of criticism of the PT on the issue of family, of its positions in relation to issues such as abortion and public security. Families are afraid to take risks and vote for people like that,” he says.
In São João Batista, which has almost 40 thousand inhabitants and claims the title of pioneer of Italian immigration, Bolsonaro achieved an even more expressive vote: 72,94%, against 21,18% by Lula.
The president's record, however, was obtained in Nova Pádua, a city in Rio Grande do Sul that is also the result of Italian colonization and pays homage to Pádua, in Veneto. In this city of less than 3 thousand inhabitants, Bolsonaro had 83,98% of the votes, and Lula, just 10,35%.
“This has to do with the type of population we have, a population of immigrants who worked hard to have what they have today”, explains Alvirio Tonet, president of Venetian Association of Nova Pádua, an entity that seeks to restore Venetian customs in the city.
Tonet says that the population of Nova Pádua, made up almost entirely of Italian descendants, is against welfare and values those who like to work and “tell the truth”. “You have to say what needs to be said, beating around the bush is useless. The people here are very clear about the things they want,” he highlights.
In Nova Pádua, Bolsonaro's vote in the first round increased compared to 2018, when he had obtained 82,75% of the votes, but in Santa Teresa (62,38%) and São João Batista (79,68%) his electorate decreased over four years.
“On the issue of the pandemic, some of his speeches were very bad. He should have been more sensitive about the issue of vaccines”, explains Roldi.
The dispute between Santa Teresa and São João Batista dates back to 2018, when then-president Michel Temer sanctioned a law recognizing the former as “pioneer of Italian immigration in Brazil".
The decision is based on the arrival in Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo, on February 21, 1874, of a ship from Genoa with 386 people on board, most of them from Trentino, a territory then belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Many of the immigrants from the “Tabacchi Expedition”, in reference to the merchant Pietro Tabacchi, organizer of the trip, settled in Santa Teresa, which today has two thirds of its population of Italian ancestry, according to Roldi.
However, before the arrival of this ship there were already reports of the presence of immigrants in Santa Catarina, especially in São João Batista, where around 30 families from Liguria founded the Nova Itália colony in 1836.
Defenders of Santa Teresa claim that the arrival of settlers in the south in the first half of the 19th century was an isolated movement, while the Tabacchi Expedition in fact began the mass immigration of Italians to Brazil. (Per Lucas Rizzi / Ansa)
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