For a while he thought he was saved. It was in April 2020. The Covid-19 was starting to sweep over Sao Paulo and the mayor of the city, Bruno Covas, was giving an interview for a portrait in The world. Suffering from intestinal cancer, the latter was combative. “I don’t feel tired at all, I’m at work”, assured the city councilor, optimist before suddenly letting his concerns show: “It’s a very difficult time. We grope in the dark… ”, Will he end up confiding, without us really knowing if he was talking about the pandemic or his own disease.
Bruno Covas died on May 16 at the Syrian-Lebanese hospital in Sao Paulo, succumbing to this serious cancer against which he had been fighting for a year and a half. He was 41 years old.
The mayor constantly kept his fellow citizens informed about the progress of his illness. The Paulistanos followed the fight from day to day “Private” of their aedile. “I have faith that I will overcome all obstacles! “, He said again on May 4 on social networks, posing for a photo on his hospital bed, holding his son Tomas, 15, firmly by the hand. Thin, pale, eyes sunk in their sockets, Bruno Covas knew he was doomed.
Recollection and national union
His death was the occasion of a rare moment of meditation and national union. After a tribute ceremony at the town hall of Sao Paulo, a funeral procession roamed the streets of the city center: the occasion of a last farewell for its moved supporters. The entire political class saluted a man “Honest”, “courageous”, “sensitive” and especially “Respectful”. A rare quality in this feverish Brazil, ruled for more than two years on the far right by President Jair Bolsonaro.
“It is possible to practice politics without hate”, liked to repeat Bruno Covas, privileging the dialogue on the show-off or the polemic. He demonstrated it in 2020 in the municipal elections, won hands down with 59% of the vote, leading a campaign against the left on substantive ideas and a civilized tone. “We had a frank and democratic relationship (…) Go in peace, Bruno! “, greeted Sunday the socialist Guilherme Boulos, unhappy opponent of Covas during the poll.
Bruno Covas inherited this moral decency. Born April 7, 1980 in Santos, on the coast paulista, Bruno is first the grandson of Mario Covas (1930-2001). A giant of local political life, this engineer by training and opponent of the military dictatorship was elected deputy, mayor, senator of Sao Paulo then governor of the state of the same name, the richest region of the country.
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