(Bloomberg) -- Geraldo Alckmin, a centrist politician who twice tried and failed to win the country’s top job, is joining the Brazilian Socialist Party in a step that puts him closer to becoming the running mate of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in this year’s elections.

Their alliance, which has been in the works for months, may re-energize the ailing political career of the former governor of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state. It’s also seen by investors and analysts as a sign that left-wing Lula is moving away from radical members of his Workers’ Party and closer to more moderate economic views that would help him win over the country’s business and financial elite.

The former governor will officially join his new party at a ceremony in Brasilia on Wednesday.

Alckmin, 69, is a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party that governed the country for eight years until 2002. The politician, known for his soft-mannered ways, got closest to the presidency in 2006, when he finished runner-up in the race that gave Lula his second term. He tried again in 2018, coming in at a distant fourth place -- his party’s worst-ever performance in a presidential vote.

Alckmin had been away from the political scene since, until ending a three-decade partnership with his party and opening talks with his former competitor. Lula, 76, has made no secret about the plan to lure his old opponent into a broad coalition against President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Being an opponent isn’t the same as being an enemy,” Lula said of Alckmin in an interview with a local radio station on Tuesday. “If we build an alliance and win the election, I’m sure we can have a great government.” 

Even as the former governor lost influence in recent years, news that he would join Lula’s ticket sent shock waves through Brazil’s political circles and financial markets, contributing to a rally in the local currency. The Alckmin effect, used by Brazilian politicians to explain how the incorporation of his candidacy adds credibility to Lula, has reduced political resistance to another possible Workers’ Party government, which ended on a bad note in 2016 with the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

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Alckmin’s decision is significant, given that he needed to join a party willing to back Lula in the October vote. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party tapped current Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria as its own candidate.

Lula and Alckmin greatly complement each other, according to Antonio Lavareda, a Brazilian sociologist, political scientist, and chief executive officer at MCI Strategy. While the former governor sees the alliance as a chance to regain power after his terrible electoral performance in 2018, Lula intends to show he is leading a united front against Bolsonaro. 

“It is a strong symbol,” Lavareda said. “Uniting forces to confront an authoritarian threat that Bolsonaro’s re-election may represent.”

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