Lula da Silva: after seeing Biden, I no longer feel …

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has insisted that he is not ruling out running for President of his country next year, because “after seeing (Joe, US President) Biden” , he no longer feels “old” to do so. In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, the metallurgical leader and former president of the South American giant between 2003 and 2011 also said he wanted “Talk to Brazilian society so that you can say to them: ‘It is possible for us to build a new country … It is possible to make this country happy again. “

“I ran eight kilometers before this interview … and I usually run 9 km a day, Monday to Friday, because walking through Brazil is going to be very hard, very exhausting and I have to prepare my legs to solve the problems. of this country, ”he said. “I’ll be 77 in next year’s election. I thought I was old. But then I saw Biden win the election at 78 and I said, ‘Well I’m a child compared to Biden, so maybe that’s fine, ‘”he noted, in regards to the presidential elections slated for October 2022.

He added that the coronavirus epidemic that still plagues Brazil and the socio-economic crisis it has engendered means it is too early to launch what would be his sixth presidential campaign since 1989, and he hopes to have the experience necessary to carry out the “recovery”. of the country after the current presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who will surely try to be re-elected.

“Once our party has its candidate and we’re in campaign mode, I want to travel across Brazil, visit all states, hold debates, talk to people, visit favelas, waste pickers, LGBTiQ + people. .. I want to speak with Brazilian society to be able to say to them: “It is possible for us to build a new country … It is possible to make this country happy again” “he insisted.

Lula’s statements coincided with a new poll released on Friday that said the former president would win next year’s election with 45%, compared to 37 Bolsonaro would get in the second round, similar results to other polls. Lula received a new signal of support from the former president a few days ago Fernando Henrique Cardoso placeholder image (1995-2002). This Friday, we knew that the two had shared their concern about the management of Bolsonaro during a lunch organized on May 12 by the former minister. Nelson Jobim. The meeting between the former leaders came after Cardoso said last March that he would vote for Lula in a possible ballot against Bolsonaro.

The interview The Guardian It was the second that the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) offered to a European media in two days, after that offered to the French magazine Paris Match, in which he said he would not hesitate to be a candidate to return to the presidency of Brazil if he is “in the best position to win the elections” and is in good health.

Lula is in a position to be a candidate after a court ruling handed down two months ago overturning nearly 26-year prison sentences against him for alleged corruption and ordering the resumption of trials for conflicts of jurisdiction. Shortly after, the court ruled that Sérgio Moro, the right-wing judge who jailed Lula before joining Bolsonaro’s cabinet, had treated the former president unfairly.

Polls suggest Lula is in a good position to defeat Bolsonaro, whom critics accuse of devastating Brazil’s environment and economy and of mismanaging the pandemic by viewing Covid-19 as a “flucinha”. The main Brazilian pollster, Datafolha, recently predicted that Lula would beat Bolsonaro in the second round by a margin of more than 20%.

The former president stayed all last week in a luxury hotel in Brasilia to meet with deputies and ambassadors. Seek support and allies. This is the first time that the leader of the Brazilian left has visited the capital since the Supreme Court overturned the sentences that led to prison, the newspaper reported. The country from Spain. After receiving the second dose of the covid vaccine, Lula resumed his face-to-face contact in the Brazilian capital just as the opposition pressured Bolsonaro to deal with the pandemic.

A commission of inquiry of the Brazilian Senate has been exposing for three weeks behind the scenes of the chaotic management of the pandemic by the Bolsonaro government and seeks to establish responsibility in a tragedy which has already killed nearly 445,000 people in Brazil. The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (ICC) occupies the headlines and monopolizes the programming of the news channels for hours, with episodes that alternate the crude statement of the facts with insults and threats of imprisonment.

Witnesses must detail, under oath, facts related to the official rejection of the Pfizer vaccine, the massive purchase of ineffective drugs against the virus or the delay in the delivery of oxygen tubes to Manaus (north), where dozens of patients they died. asphyxia. Ministers and former ministers, health officials and vaccine manufacturers face serious questions. At the end of a session, a former minister suffered from unease. Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, Vice-President of the Commission, asks a recurring question: If Bolsonaro hadn’t denied the severity of COVID-19 or scorned social distancing measures, “how many lives could have been saved?”.

The media attention of the hearings “puts the government on the ropes, constantly on the defensive,” he said. Geraldo Monteiro, political scientist from Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj). “Events which in a way involve the responsibility of the government occur daily and which tighten the siege, especially around Bolsonaro,” he added.