Fernando Haddad: “If Bolsonaro is re-elected, he will break with Mercosur”

Fernando Haddad is convinced that in 2022 the story will be different from that of 2018. The former mayor of São Paulo, 58, has just been indicated by Lula da silva, prevented from running as a candidate because of his convictions for corruption, still as a candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT) to face Jair Bolsonaro again at the polls. “The right will have more difficulty justifying the vote than the far right in 2022,” Haddad said in an interview with LA NACION, who described the Brazilian president as “unbalanced”. Days after starting a tour of Brazil to broadcast the PT proposal, Haddad criticized the alleged political use of Operation Lava Jato, assured that the PT “could not have done more” to fight corruption and said if Bolsonaro is re-elected, the Mercosur bloc could face a hiatus.

“Brazil is approaching 250,000 deaths from Covid-19, with a vaccination campaign that has started, but with delays. How do you see the coming months of the country?

“The government adopted the worst possible strategy to fight the pandemic, which was to sabotage social isolation. He ended up investing a considerable amount of resources in emergency aid, and when aid ended (December 31), there were no vaccines. From a strategic point of view, it was a bad philosophy which had already made 240,000 deaths, a tragedy like at no time in our history. People no longer take care of themselves, some because they cannot be without work and income. We will have at least until July or August a very difficult situation.

– The government has changed its tone and started to place more importance on vaccination. Did you understand the seriousness of the crisis or did you feel the impact of the decline in popularity?

– Bolsonaro will always govern with an eye on the polls, from an obscurantist position. From this position, he captivates 20% of the electorate and makes obscurantism more flexible to gain ground and reach 30%. This is reflected in everything he does: in the defense of the dictatorship, in the decree on the release of arms and also in the vaccine.

“How was your recent conversation with Lula?” Are you the PT candidate for 2022 or do you expect the former president to regain his political rights?

—Despite the evidence of bias [Sergio] Moro [en el proceso del tríplex de Guarujá], Lula is very skeptical about the determination of the judiciary to correct the errors made against him. That’s why he called me up and said, ‘You had 47 million votes, you went to the second round [en 2018]You are the most visible PT name. We must speak to Brazilian society immediately and not wait until 2022, when I will not know whether I will have the right to participate or not. So we accepted this. I graduated from teaching and will devote myself to walking the country. On Wednesday I’ll be heading to Minas Gerais, then probably northeast.

—Bolsonaro seems to feel more comfortable competing with the PT. Do you agree with this reading?

– In fact, Bolsonaro trusts the law. You think you will support him under all circumstances. He knows that the left will never support him and thinks that the right would because this electorate is less liberal than it seems and is more fascist than it seems in his opinion.

– Why this time the PT can beat him?

– People are better informed about who Bolsonaro is. In addition, today citizens are better informed about what Moro did from a legal point of view against Lula and many more people know me. The right will have a harder time justifying the vote for the far right in 2022.

– By opposing Lava Jato, the PT did not offer a clear alternative on how to fight corruption. Did they not distinguish between possible irregularities in the processes and the fight against crime?

“Of course, we are not against the fight against corruption. Journalism has played a horrific role in Brazil because it deliberately wanted to confuse constructive criticism of the anti-corruption process with support for corruption. Wanting to improve the anti-corruption process has nothing to do with defending the corrupt. The press didn’t want this to be clear as their goal was to defeat Lula and they used every device in the world to implicate him, turning a blind eye to Lava Jato’s illegalities.

– However, there were several corruption scandals during the PT governments. Don’t you think there was a lack of “zero tolerance” against corruption ”?

– No, no … (interrupts the question). There was no tolerance. The federal police have never had as much autonomy as in the PT governments. The prosecution chose its head, which had never happened in the history of Brazil, the state audits functioned without any constraint from the government. Nothing more could be done to fight corruption. Everything has been done so that there is no corruption. This story (Lava Jato) could have ended in the most correct way: disrupting the cartel, capturing leaders, punishing businessmen, preserving businesses, purifying the party political system, and letting democracy work.

– Argentina and Brazil went through a period of disagreement, with personal attacks between the presidents. How do you see the attempt to rebuild the relationship?

—Bolsonaro managed to fight every head of state except Trump, who lost the election. Alberto Fernández must be assured that this is not a personal matter. We are in the hands of a government of an absolutely unprepared and unbalanced person. I do not think that until the end of the Bolsonaro government he will be able to restore the relations that Brazil had with its traditional partners, it is difficult to deal with a person as unbalanced as him. I’m very scared for Mercosur. I think Brazil can break it, and I have no doubts that if Bolsonaro is re-elected, it will happen.

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