Lula wasted no time. Former Brazilian head of state Lula appeared as the leader of the opposition in Brazil on Wednesday with a virulent speech against President Jair Bolsonaro, without however declaring his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election, during his first speech since he regained his political rights. “I would like the Brazilian people not to follow any of the stupid decisions taken by the President of the Republic and his Ministry of Health,” said Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 75, at a press conference, while the coronavirus has killed more than 268,000 people in Brazil.
A thunderous return to the political arena for the former left-wing president (2003-2010), who had been rather discreet since his release from prison at the end of 2019. But everything changed on Monday, when a judge of the Court Supreme overturned all of Lula’s formal defect convictions, making him eligible again to face Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election next year. Always so combative, the hoarse voice sometimes strangled by emotion, the icon of the left said he was “victim of the worst legal lie in 500 years” in Brazil. “For the first time, the truth has prevailed,” he said.
“Building a fairer, more human world”
“Do not be afraid of me, I am radical because I want to attack the problems of the country at the root, to build a more just, more human world”, he continued, a response to those who fear that he duel at the top between the former steelworker and the far-right leader only accentuates the deep divisions in Brazilian society. But Lula assured that, for the moment, he had “not the head for the candidacy of 2022”. “I think it would be thinking small to talk about 2022 today. This is the time to talk about vaccines against Covid-19, about unemployment, ”he added, while not ruling out the possibility of an alliance for a“ united front ”against Bolsonaro.
A candidate’s speech
During his two terms (2003-2010), Lula managed to set up ambitious social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty thanks to an economic boom, but his image has been severely tarnished in recent years. years by corruption scandals. Two recent polls have shown that Lula is still the best-placed candidate to beat the far-right president in 2022. Although the ex-president has not officially announced that he will run for a third term, he did. “A candidate’s speech”, “kicking off his campaign” by “hitting hard on Bolsonaro,” political analyst Creomar de Souza, of the Dharma consulting firm, told AFP.
“The campaign has started”
“The Earth is round and Bolsonaro believes it is flat,” Lula quipped. “Without all this madness that has won the country, many deaths could have been avoided,” he added, criticizing in particular the fact that Brazil lacks doses of vaccines against Covid-19 because the government has failed. not forged the necessary agreements with pharmaceutical companies. “It would have been necessary to create a crisis committee, to involve scientists, but instead, we had a president who spoke about small flu and chloroquine”, he launched, in allusion to hydroxychloroquine, controversial drug which Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly praised, even if many studies have shown that it was ineffective against Covid-19.
In an official ceremony to enact a law authorizing additional expenditure for the acquisition of vaccines, Jair Bolsonaro adopted a more moderate speech than usual, even wearing a protective mask, as he presented himself in the Most of the time with his face uncovered. “Let us trust the government, the Ministry of Health”, which work with “seriousness and responsibility”, declared the Head of State, whose chaotic management of the pandemic is strongly criticized by public health specialists.
The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, which fell nearly 4% on Monday after the announcement of the overturning of Lula’s convictions, was up slightly (+ 0.4%) shortly before the close. For economic analyst André Perfeito, of the consulting firm Necton, “the campaign has already started” and Lula’s speech should “push Bolsonaro towards populism, to the detriment of the austerity reforms” promised by the Minister of the Economy ultra-liberal Paulo Guedes.
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