The leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will become president of Brazil again this Sunday, in a long-anticipated return to the political front line that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, will follow from a distance, as he will not comply with protocol formalities in Brasilia as he is out of the country.
Lula already governed Brazil between 2003 and 2010, years during which he raised the international presence of the South American giant, symbolized in an unprecedented Olympic Games, and adopted measures to try to combat poverty and reduce inequality.
However, the numerous corruption scandals, mostly related to the Odebrecht construction company, marked his legacy in subsequent years. Lula himself was even imprisoned, after a conviction that Justice annulled ‘a posteriori’ for irregularities and in a context where political polarization had already spread to all branches of government.
Both Lula and the country in general have changed in recent years, although challenges such as the fight against poverty have not, since data show that more than 33 million people go hungry in Brazil, according to the Penssan Network. Only four out of ten families can fully cover their food needs and the NGO Oxfam estimates that the country has regressed to the 1990s.
Brazil must also deal with scourges such as insecurity and, in economic terms, volatile inflation – 6 percent in November – and a slowdown in growth yet to materialize. The Central Bank estimated this December that GDP will grow by 2.9 percent in 2022 and that, in 2023, it will remain at around 1 percent.
In political terms, Lula will be obliged to attend to a divided citizenry, insofar as his victory in the last elections was not as large as expected and there was less than a two-point difference with Bolsonaro. In fact, the outgoing president obtained 58.2 million votes, more than those obtained four years earlier.
He has formed a multiparty government, although he reserves key posts for the Workers’ Party (PT), and with a greater presence of women, although it is far from being parity, as the balance is still on the side of men with 26 posts to eleven.
The Congress will also be dominated by conservative parties, thanks to the rise of the ultra-right, which will limit the room for maneuver of the new president, who has promised greater budgetary transparency and to recover the environmental policies reviled by Bolsonaro.
Lula has already begun to make it clear that, in the international arena, he will also mark distances from his predecessor, an ally of former President Donald Trump and a critic of multilateralism. Bolsonaro stood virtually alone at the global level during the COVID-19 pandemic, criticizing restrictions and spreading health hoaxes.
The ultra-right leader will end his mandate with an approval rating of 39 percent, while 37 percent of citizens disapprove of his administration, according to Datafolha’s final poll. These are the worst results at the end of a first term since the advent of democracy in Brazil.
SOCIAL TENSION Bolsonaro’s silence after the closing of polling stations gave rise to a wave of protests marked by road blockades. It took several days before the outgoing president committed himself to initiate the transition, although he did so with a small mouth and without openly acknowledging that he had been defeated — in recent years he had already given fuel to conspiracy theories without proof of electoral fraud.
Lula has promised that in the first stages of his mandate he will take measures against those who still refuse to recognize his victory, at a time when there are still groups of ‘bolsonaristas’ demanding in front of the barracks a potential intervention of the Armed Forces. Operations have also been carried out to dismantle alleged violent plans.
Bolsonaro, however, has not only shown no signs of softening his position, but has completed his list of rudeness with a resounding absence at the inauguration of his successor. According to the portal G1, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have advised him to be out of Brazil before January 1 for fear of being arrested.
The fear of possible acts of violence has also led to the mobilization of an extensive security apparatus, both at the investiture ceremony itself and in the streets in different parts of the country. Lula’s team has organized a concert that could be attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
THE LAST INVESTRUCTION ON JANUARY 1 More than a dozen heads of State and Government will attend ‘in situ’ the start of the new political stage in Brazil, among them King Felipe VI, who will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, and the Second Vice-President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz.
It is tradition that the presidential investiture in Brazil takes place on January 1, as established by the Constitution, but this 2023 will be the last occasion on which the ceremony coincides with the New Year. In 2021, a constitutional amendment was approved that delays «to January 5 of the year following his election» the inauguration of the new president, something that will already apply in 2027.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
