Lula da Silva launches his candidacy to defeat Bolsonaro in Brazil

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva This Saturday, he launched his candidacy for the presidential elections in October with a message of “hope” and a willingness to do ” The greatest peaceful revolutionFrom the history of Brazil.

“We want to go back to that No one will dare to challenge democracy again and why Fascism is back in the sewersLula said, working in a conference center in Sao Paulo, where he was surrounded by hundreds of gunmen, parliamentarians, artists, unions and social representatives.

Dressed in a suit, but without a tie, the former head of state (2003-2010), favorite for the October 2 elections, read an official letter, with the huge Brazilian flag in the background, green and yellow in recent years dedicated to followers of the current Brazilian president, the far-right Jair. Bolsonaro.

Lula wanted to leave a message of “peace” and “love” in front ofTotalitarian threat, hate, violence, discrimination, exclusion burden the country.

Throughout his speech, he made no direct reference to Bolsonaro, his biggest political opponent who appears second in opinion polls with 30% of voting intentions, compared to Nearly 45% give Lola.

The far-right leader though, by implication, was present in every one of his words. “Everything we have done is being destroyed and the Brazilian people who have been occupied by the current government (…) Restoring Brazil’s sovereignty is even more urgent ‘, was sentenced.

Lula denounced that “Brazil is back on the UN hunger map” and advocated protecting the Amazon against Bolsonaro’s policy of environmental “destruction”, which has led to record rates of deforestation in the Amazon. “We need to change Brazil againsaid Lula, who reviewed social-themed initiatives during his two terms in office that have lifted 30 million Brazilians out of poverty.

For most of his speaking, the progressive leader has put aside the emotion and nerves that characterize him to avoid controversy and slip, as he did a week ago when he hinted that police aren’t human, statements for which he apologized. This most statesmanlike, 76-year-old was greeted as a rock star, under cries of “chief, boss” and accompanied by his partner, sociologist Rosângela da Silva, 55, whom he’s going to marry next time. On the eighteenth day, he disappeared in the last five minutes of his speech when he put the papers aside. “We will make the greatest peaceful revolution in the history of Brazil“, claimed.

This will be the sixth time that the name of the former union leader has contested the Brazilian presidential election. He tried 1989, 1994 and 1998 and won in 2002 and 2006.

In 2018, the year Bolsonaro won, he also sought the presidency, but electoral justice prevented him from doing so because he was convicted of corruption. However, Lula regained his political rights in March 2021, when the Supreme Court overturned the two sentences that sentenced him to 580 days in prison.

Participate in this Saturday’s event remotely, after testing positive for COVID-19, the former governor of Sao Paulo Geraldo Alcumenis a veteran liberal politician and ardent Catholic who will run for Vice President with Lula.

When Lula extended his hand to me, I saw in that gesture more than just a sign Reconciliation between two historical foes“I saw a call to reason,” Alckmin said in a video. The election of Alckmin, who was Lula’s opponent in the 2006 election, is a center-turn for Lula and a gesture to project an image of economic moderation, especially against the financial markets.

Hundreds of supporters from different regions of Brazil attended the event, which was held at a convention center in the northern part of Sao Paulo. There was no shortage of Labor flags and war songs like “Brazil urgent, Lula presidentRed prevailed despite the former president’s campaign attempting to return to the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag.

“Lola is everything to me”, said Pedro Luiz da Silva, a member of the National Movement for the Homeless who has spent 20 of 61 years on the streets of São Paulo. This situation with regard to the social policies of the Lula government “was able to come out thanks to Law No. 12305/2010”, as he puts it exactly, in A reference to the text that helped street recyclers.