FBrazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is set to make a globetrotting start to 2022 as he accelerates his campaign to defeat Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro with a series of international trips to the US, China, Russia. and Mexico.
Twenty years after being elected Brazil’s first working-class president in 2002, the veteran leftist is preparing for an electrifying attempt to regain power in the presidential election next October.
The Guardian understands that 76-year-old Lula is likely to formally announce his candidacy in March, shortly after his Workers’ Party (PT) celebrates the 42nd anniversary of its founding on February 10, 1980.
Simultaneously, the politician, who ruled from 2003 to 2010 during the early years of a commodity-driven boom, will make a series of trips abroad that allies say are designed to repair the international reputation of the South American country and denounce the Bolsonaro’s threat to the young Brazilian democracy. .
“President Lula needs to travel the world to rebuild the bridges that were destroyed by Bolsonaro and denounce the great risk that Bolsonaro continues to represent for Brazilian democracy,” said Alexandre Padilha, former Lula minister and PT congressman.
Lula’s first trip is expected to be to Mexico in January, where he is likely to be received by his left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. During a recent visit to Argentina, Lula was received by his leftist leaders, Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and spoken the possibility of a progressive revival in Latin America.
Trips to the US, China and Russia are also planned for the first quarter of 2022, while visits to Italy, Portugal and the UK are also planned. In November, Lula went on a four-country tour of Europe, during which he met now German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and was invited to the Elysee Palace by Emmanuel Macron.
Padilha said it was essential for Lula to alert the world to fears that Bolsonaro might refuse to acknowledge the election result, just as his political idol, Donald Trump, did in the United States. “This is not just an ordinary electoral battle. We are going to face a historic movement in which we must defeat a neofascist movement in Brazil led by Bolsonaro ”.
With less than a year to go to the election, Lula appears poised to beat Bolsonaro, whose ratings have plummeted amid skyrocketing inflation and a devastating Covid crisis that has killed more than 615,000 people and hit the economy. A recent survey It gave Lula a 27-point lead over Bolsonaro and suggested he was close to a victory in the first round.
Cláudio Couto, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said that many things could change between now and the October 2 vote. “But everything points to at least Lula having a place in the second round. The question is, who will join him?
Most observers still believe the answer is Bolsonaro, who retains an unconditional support base of around 20% of voters and hopes that Auxílio Brasil, a new social welfare program, will win it back among poor people.
But Bolsonaro’s chances have been hampered by a challenge from the right by his former Justice Minister Sergio Moro, who resigned from the cabinet in April 2020 accusing the president of trying to meddle with the federal police. Moro, a former judge who helped oust Lula from the 2018 presidential campaign before joining the Bolsonaro government, recently announced his return to politics and appears third in polls.
Couto said a “fratricidal war” between Moro and Bolsonaro could boost Lula’s campaign by dividing the Brazilian right. “I suspect Bolsonaro is probably very irritated, particularly with Moro. Bolsonaro and his sons have come out on the attack against him and this shows that they have understood the danger that Moro will steal his place [in the second round]. “
Couto said Lula’s world trip was due in part to reengaging with foreign governments before what would be his third term as president.
Yet for the most part, the trips were aimed at a national audience with Lula trying to contrast his statesman travels with the international isolation of Bolsonaro, who has alienated key international partners, including Joe Biden’s US leaders, Xi’s China. Jinping and the EU like Macron from France.
Couto said that Bolsonaro was considered a “extension wheel” (pain in the neck) – “the kind of person who makes everyone run away when they join the conversation.”
“This is a trump card for Lula,” Couto said, adding that even Brazil’s economic elites, who helped elect Bolsonaro, now realized that Lula had international respect, while Bolsonaro was widely rejected for his management of coronavirus and the environment.
Padilha said that the world sees Lula as “a popular and experienced politician who favors dialogue… and was interested in protecting the environment and reducing poverty and inequality. Bolsonaro’s image is one of destruction. From a far-right leader who is anti-environmental [and] anti-vaccines and condemned Brazil to the greatest human tragedy in our history ”.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism