Lula did not say he will implement religious restrictions in Brazil if reelected

Misleading: A video circulating on Helo conveys a misleading idea that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), if elected in October this year, will implement religious restrictions in Brazil, following the example adopted by the Chinese government. Excerpts from an interview given by PT to Jornal da Record were cut and manipulated. In the original interview, he makes no mention of religious issues.Investigated Content: Video with excerpts from a report shown in Jornal da Record that deals with the religious repression imposed by the government in China followed by statements by former President Lula classifying the country as “an example for the world”. The content is overlaid with Brazilian news headlines in which the PT says it is necessary to regulate the media in Brazil. The video ends with the sentence said by Lula: “I hope that other countries learn their lesson from China. I have a lot of faith, a lot of hope that we will be able to do that from 2022 onwards.”

where it was published: Hello

Completion of Proof: A video circulating on the Helo app, which features excerpts from a report by Jornal da Record about religious restrictions imposed in China, accompanied by clippings from an interview given by former President Lula to the Chinese news portal Guancha, is misleading.

The report shown on Brazilian television was aired on March 4, 2022, while the PT interview took place in June 2021. Contrary to what the target content of this check suggests, at no time does the former president mention religious issues of that country, nor does it say that it will be able to implement authoritarian restrictions inspired by China, if elected president of Brazil in the election of October this year.

The conversation between Lula and interviewer Eric Li lasted just over 51 minutes. Throughout the interview, the former president praised China on various topics, such as combating the covid-19 pandemic, investments in education and the country’s economic evolution.

misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Scope of publication: Comprova investigates the most far-reaching suspicious content on social networks. The video published on the Helo app had more than 7,300 shares, 2,900 likes and more than 400 comments until June 2nd.

What the author of the publication says: A message was forwarded to the person responsible for the publication on Helo itself, but there was no response until the completion of this check. The search for the author’s name on other social networks did not return results.

How do we check: Comprova started the check by searching the internet for the interview given by former President Lula to the Chinese news portal Guanchajust like the original report shown in Jornal da Recordin March 2022, which deals with the ban on sharing religious content on the internet without the permission of the Chinese government.

Using the keywords “Lula” and “China”, the search returned results from both other verifications on the topic (Estadão Check, AFP We check and Rumors.org), as well as journalistic reports reporting the former president’s speeches about China (Folha de S.Paulo and Power 360).

We also looked for the owner of the Helo profile who shared the content, but there was no response.

The interview

In June 2021, former President Lula gave an interview to the Chinese portal Guanchain which he praised China on various topics, such as combating the coronavirus pandemic, investments in education and the country’s economic evolution.

The PT’s statements, at the time, were reported by the Brazilian press (Folha de S.Paulo and Power 360) and are available, in full, in this link.

The conversation between Lula and interviewer Eric Li lasted just over 51 minutes and was also shared on Youtube channel of the former president.

At no time does Lula comment on the restrictions imposed by China regarding the sharing of religious content on the internet, nor does he say that he intends to implement this control in Brazil if he is elected in the 2022 election.

The report on the topic that appears in the viral video was featured in Jornal da Record on March 4 of this year, that is, nine months after Lula’s interview with Guancha.

Excerpts were cut and removed from the original context

In the video that circulates on social media, Lula praises China for being a country “that has a strong state, that makes decisions and that people comply with”, conduct that, according to him, does not occur in Brazil. Soon after, the former president praises China for fighting the covid-19 pandemic: “China was only able to fight the coronavirus as quickly as it fought because it has a strong party, a strong state. Because he has a pulse, he has a commanding voice, we don’t have that here in Brazil.”

Lula also says that he “thought very big” in the relationship with China and that he believed that the two countries should have built a strategic partnership. What the investigated content fails to show, however, is that at that moment the former president was also talking about India, South Africa and Russia, emerging countries that form the BRICS.

“I dreamed a lot about the Brics. I thought a lot about my relationship with China. In my relationship with India, with South Africa and with Russia. I thought that we should have built a strategic partnership so that we, being half of humanity, would not be dependent on the dollar policy. We didn’t need the dollar to do our foreign trade”, says Lula, in the original interview between 00:19:08 and 00:19:44.

The next segment of the ex-president’s speech that is out of context is the following sentence: “China is an example to the world. And I hope other countries learn their lesson from China. I have a lot of faith, a lot of hope, that we will be able to do that, starting in 2022.” This sentence has been edited to imply that Lula would like to implement the Chinese authoritarian system in Brazil.

In this final stretch, in fact, Lula praises China’s economic development in the last 20 years. “I think China is an example of development for the world. And I hope that other countries learn the lesson from China so that we can be richer, be stronger, have more distribution of wealth and have a more humane world.”

Finally, when he says that he has “a lot of faith, a lot of hope, that we will be able to do this, starting in 2022”, Lula refers to the independence of the countries of the global south, which are developing nations, in relation to the exchange rate policy influenced by the dollar.

“I worked a lot with Hu Jintao [ex-presidente da China] the need for a South-South relationship. Not depending on the North as we are depending on it. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get there, but I have a lot of faith, a lot of hope that we will be able to do that from 2022 onwards.”

This final excerpt can be checked between minutes 00:20:55 and 00:22:06 of the original interview.

why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that goes viral on social media about the covid-19 pandemic, public policies of the federal government and presidential elections. The content of the video verified here quotes the pre-candidate for the presidency Lula. False information involving political actors harms the democratic process and hinders the voter’s decision, which must be made based on true information. In the video posted on Helo, for example, there are comments stating that “Lula is a Satanist”, and that the former president “wants to silence the people of God”.

Other checks on the topic: The same interview present in the video verified by Comprova has already been misrepresented and used in similar pieces of disinformation that were subject to checks by the Estadão Checkgives AFP We check and the website Rumors.org.

In previous verifications involving the name of the former president, Comprova showed that it is false that Lula stole 350,000 tons of gold from Serra Pelada and gave money to Venezuela; what video shows images of luxury property in Ceará as a residence rented by Lula in São Paulo is that Lula’s “leaked” statements about the economic crisis are public and were made in 2016.