Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sparked Jair Bolsonaro’s “moronic” and bungling response to the coronavirus pandemic, in a moving and potentially historic speech widely regarded as the start of an attempt to wrestling back the presidency of his far-right nemesis.
The veteran left, which has led Latin America’s top economy through some of the brightest years in its modern history, was put back on the front lines of Brazilian politics on Monday by the surprise decision to destroy the corruption convictions that led to its attempt to to regain the presidency, thwarted. in 2018. A Supreme Court judge on Tuesday described the anti-corruption action that forced Lula from that year’s election as ‘the biggest judicial scandal’ in Brazilian history.
The 75-year-old addressed the nation on Wednesday and no longer formally announced that he would challenge Bolsonaro – a right-wing populist who accuses critics of catastrophically mishandling Covid’s outbreak – in the 2022 election. But Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2011 left no doubt that his political backlash effort had begun.
“Just think of the madness that this country possesses,” said the leader of the Labor Party (PT).
“This country is in complete turmoil and confusion because there is no government. I will repeat: this country has no government, ”Lula insisted, blaming Bolsonaro’s disability and denial for the scale of a Covid crisis that killed nearly 270,000 Brazilians.
“For the love of God. “This virus killed almost 2,000 people yesterday,” Lula told reporters and supporters at the headquarters of metalworkers in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial center where he cut his political teeth in the 1970s.
“Vaccinations are not about whether you have money or not,” he said of the Bolsonaro government’s failure to get adequate doses. “It’s about whether you like life or love death.”
Political observers are divided over the impact Lula’s rehabilitation will have on the 2022 election, and his chances of success.
Some, among them allies of Bolsonaro, claim that Bolsonaro would enjoy clashing with a leftist whom he would portray as a radical ‘red’ threat. But Thaís Oyama, the author of a book on Bolsonaro’s tumultuous presidency, claimed that the right – wing populist and his supporters were blinded and discouraged by Lula’s unexpected return.
“They think it’s really bad. It was a complete surprise and they feel shocked and very worried. There was a funeral vote [around Bolsonaro this week], ”Oyama said. “It’s the worst thing that could happen to him now … it caught him flatfooted.”
A poll published on the eve of the ruling showed that 50% of Brazilians may or will definitely vote for Lula in the next election, compared to just 38% for Bolsonaro.
Oyama said Bolsonaristas had become uneasy in recent months about their leader’s re-election chances, with polls suggesting he was losing support due to his Covid-19 reaction.
Bolsonaro would be particularly concerned about the expulsion of working class and poor voters in northeastern Brazil, where Lula was born and still remains a much-loved figure for his crusade against poverty. But even members of the economic elite who encouraged Bolsonaro’s rise were so disillusioned that Oyama thought they would consider resigning. “Given the choice between Bolsonaro and the devil, I would vote for the devil,” a money partner recently told one of the journalists’ contacts.
Christian Lynch, a political scientist from Rio de Janeiro State University, agrees that Lula’s revival is bad news for Bolsonaro.
“Lula ruled this country for eight years – and it was the most prosperous period in Brazil’s recent history,” he said, predicting that an economic downturn fueled by coronavirus would seduce many voters by the prospect of returning. times after the halcyon days of poverty reduction and economic boom.
“Bolsonaro represents the bottom in the recent history of the Republic and he will have to face the candidate who was the pinnacle,” Lynch said.
Lula’s return is far from being widely welcomed. Many conservatives see him as the personification of corruption and economic inadequacy, given the historic recession that plunged Brazil under his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff. In the recent poll that put Lula 12 points ahead of Bolsonaro, it also showed that 44% of Brazilians rejected Lula, although 56% opposed Bolsonaro.
To win back some of the electorate, Lynch said it was imperative that Lula see himself as a Joe Biden-style conciliator who could reunite Brazil and fix his economy after the unrest and chaos caused by the admiring president of Donald Trump. “He must position himself as a left-wing Bonaparte who has come to restore peace and order,” Lynch said.
In his 80-minute speech, Lula not only promised it – with a serious diagnosis of the ‘evils’ that Bolsonaro inflicted on Brazil, but also an optimal vision for the future.
The former president destroys Bolsonaro as a useless ‘blowhard’ who endangered lives by promoting unproven Covid drugs and questioning the importance of vaccination and not being vaccinated himself. “Do not follow any of the decisions of the president or health minister. Get vaccinated,” Lula said.
But he also describes a more optimistic path forward for the country where racism can be ‘abolished’, the economic boom, the LGBT community and different religions can be respected, women can not be ‘trampled’ and where ‘young people are free’ can wander around without worrying about shooting ”.
“This world is possible, absolutely possible, and that’s why I invite you to struggle,” said Lula, who advocated science and wore a face mask for the occasion, something Bolsonaro repeatedly could not do.
Despite being in his eighth decade, Lula hinted that he was spoiled for choice in a political battle. “I like to joke that I have the energy of a 30-year-old and the drive of a 20-year-old – maybe that’s why I have not been vaccinated yet,” he said.
Gaspard Estrada, a Brazilian specialist at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, calls Lula’s rebound a positive development for those surprised by Brazil’s illegal attack under Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper who publicly praised martyrs and dictators .
“The Brazilian opposition now has a face and a name and that is Lula,” Estrada said, adding: “What is at stake now is the future of Brazilian democracy.”