'I'm willing' to run for Brazil president, says Lula
AFP , Monday 15 Nov 2021
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday he is ready to stand for election to take back the reins from his far-right successor, Jair Bolsonaro.
But while declaring "I'm willing, I'm motivated, I'm in good health" to be a candidate, Lula said he would only make his decision early next year, months before the October 2022 election.
Related
Speaking in Brussels at a media conference in the European Parliament, alongside the head of the legislature's Socialists and Democrats grouping, Lula, 76, made his opinion of Bolsonaro clear.
"Bolsonaro is a copy of Trump," Lula said, disparaging the former US leader, Donald Trump.
"He's a poor copy of Trump. But Bolsonaro doesn't think, he doesn't have any ideas," Lula said, accusing his successor of ensuring that all the beneficial legacies from Lula's era in power were "torn down".
Lula, a former trade union leader who was president between 2003 and 2010, is credited with a hefty lead way ahead of Bolsonaro in voter intention polls.
In Brussels, he again dismissed as "persecution" graft charges that landed him in prison during the last election, in 2018, but which were overturned this year by Brazil's supreme court.
Since being freed, Lula has cut a figure as a presidential candidate-in-waiting for next year's polls.
He said of his Workers Party: "We need to have someone who stands, we need to win the elections. And at the same time, we have to rebuild Brazil."
He added that, "in February or March, I will decide whether I stand or not. It depends on whether the party wants me to be a candidate."
Brazil Ex-Leader Lula Gets a Warm EU Welcome, Unlike Bolsonaro
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Former Brazilan President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is leading the polls ahead of next year’s election. He’s also getting a warm reception as he tours Europe, in stark contrast with the country’s current leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
Only days after Bolsonaro appeared isolated at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Rome, Lula managed to secure a number of high profile meetings with European officials.
Lula On Sunday, met the European Union’s High Representative of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who said on Twitter that they had “good exchange” on EU-Latin American relations.
On Tuesday, Lula will be greeted by Paris mayor and presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo. And Last week, he was hosted by Germany’s Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz. “I am delighted by our good discussions and look forward to continue our dialogue!” Scholz said.
The two Brazilian leaders couldn’t be more different. Lula is a former union-leader who ran the country between 2003 and 2010 on an income redistribution platform fueled by higher commodity prices. He saw his star power fade after a massive corruption probe that landed him in jail until 2019. A Supreme Court justice eventually annulled Lula’s convictions, clearing the way for him to run for office again.
Bolsonaro, meanwhile, is a far-right ex-Army captain with a liking for guns who was elected in 2018 on a promise to fight corruption and defend traditional family values. His mandate has been marred by his poor handling of the coronavirus and a sluggish economy. He’s also been skeptical of climate-change.
Lula would win a runoff Bolsonaro, according to polls.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Entornointeligente.com / Among the countries to be visited by the leader of the Workers’ Party are Germany, Belgium, France and Spain.
The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, begins a tour of four European countries this Thursday. He will hold meetings with political and social leaders to strengthen ties with the European left.
In Germany, Belgium, France and Spain, da Silva will discuss the world scenario and current affairs in Latin America. In Berlin, he will meet with the former leader of the German Social Democratic Party (SDP), the political group that won the last elections, Martin Schulz.
According to local media, the Workers’ Party (PT) leader has a previous relationship with the also former president of the European Parliament, and Shulz traveled to Brazil in 2018 to visit him in prison.
After his release, in March 2020, Lula returned to Berlin, an auspicious moment to meet with party president Norbert Walter-Borjans.
Meanwhile, in Belgium, he will join a debate in the European Parliament and dialogue with Social Democratic leaders.
Já em solo europeu para uma série de compromissos nos próximos dias. Na agenda: diálogos pela Alemanha, Bélgica, França e Espanha. Começamos hoje por Berlim com uma intensa rodada de encontros. Outro Brasil é possível. E vamos lembrar o mundo disso.
@ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/snCWgvP56m
— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 11, 2021 “Already on European soil for a series of engagements in the coming days. On the agenda: dialogues in Germany, Belgium, France and Spain. We start today in Berlin with an intense round of meetings. Another Brazil is possible. And we will remind the world of this.”
Also, in France, he will attend a conference on Brazil at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Sciences Po). The meeting takes place in the framework of the tenth anniversary of Lula being the first Latin American leader in receiving an honorary doctorate degree from the institution, one of the most respected in the world.
On November 17, the former president will receive the Political Courage Award 2021, granted by the magazine Politique Internationale for his “desire to promote equality” during his term as president.
In Paris, the leader of the South American giant will meet with Mayor Anne Hidalgo, presidential pre-candidate, and while in Spain, he will add to his European tour with other high-level meetings.
Lula will be accompanied on his travels by PT leaders, former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and Pernambuco Senator Humberto Costa.
LINK ORIGINAL: Telesurtvi
Entornointeligente.com
REPORT
10 November 2021
Brazil
Brazil’s former leader is the frontrunner in polls for the 2022 presidential election, well ahead of Jair Bolsonaro. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would have run in 2018 had he not had his political rights withdrawn and been imprisoned for 580 days. This year, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the lawsuits that led to his conviction were illegal and that former judge Sergio Moro had been biased in the way he oversaw Lula’s corruption trial. In an exclusive interview with Leonardo Sakamoto for New Internationalist, Lula talks about the most urgent issues of the day, what kept him going through his darkest hours, and his plans for the future.
RICARDO STUCKERT/INSTITUTO LULAJoe Biden has made climate change a priority. Would a new PT (Workers’ Party) government do the same, considering that this would mean changing the Brazilian industrial framework?
Under the PT – and back in 2009 during COP-15 in Copenhagen – Brazil set out to meet ambitious carbon reduction targets. We reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 80 per cent, while the United States hadn’t even signed the Kyoto Protocol. So, I congratulate the US on reviewing the stance it has taken on this issue.
Brazil’s development cannot be dissociated from an environmental agenda that includes: watershed recovery, sustainable agribusiness, recycling co-operatives in cities, forest preservation, the situation of nut gatherers, rubber tappers, and fishers in the Amazon. Also, the carbon compensation market and decentralized clean energy generation.
[There are] opportunities for biotechnology, for preserving the forest, for investing in solar and wind energy, particularly in the northeast. [These are] central to the future the country needs to rebuild, to create jobs, income and quality of life for its population.
In your government there was conflict between the environmental agenda and the development agenda, environment minister Marina Silva clashing with mining and energy minister Dilma Rousseff. How can Brazil’s international environmental credibility be restored, especially after Bolsonaro, while holding on to economic growth?
There was no conflict. There was debate. What happened in my government was that we combined the largest environmental and indigenous reserves ever created in the country’s history, deforestation reduction, advances in waste treatment and environmental regulation with economic development and social inclusion. We reduced unemployment and eliminated hunger while strengthening environmental agencies and agendas. We had credibility in both areas because we were serious and talked to everyone. That’s not conflict; it’s debate, it’s democracy, where disagreement is just natural on some issues. Debate creates improvement.
Bolsonaro evoked nationalism to support his disastrous approach to the environment. How are you going to convince Brazilians that a large part of the Amazon may belong to Brazil but it does not exist simply to be destroyed by Brazilians?
I don’t need to convince Brazilians of that because that’s what Brazilians already think. The vast majority of Brazilians want the forest to remain. We must not mistake Bolsonaro for Brazil or mistake some outlaw landgrabbers, a backward minority of landowners, for Brazilians in general.
Do you regret your previous relationship with big business and economic power?
I don’t regret it because my relationship with businesses – Brazilian or foreign – has always been republican, legal and focused on creating jobs and development for Brazil. [The ‘Car Wash’ anti-bribery prosecutors] investigated my life from top to bottom and found nothing. They had to invent a conviction for ‘indeterminate acts’. Even Moro could find no wrongdoing. If business people break the law, they’ll have to pay, lose control of their companies, go to jail, but jobs and development projects have to be preserved. Today, those who overthrew [former President] Dilma [Rousseff], promising paradise and then destroying the country in the process, are the ones with a credibility problem.
The future of Brazil cannot be separated from an environmental agenda
How will you reconnect with your base and other people who supported the PT in the early days but may have lost faith since?
There is a younger generation that got to know Brazil under the PT. They didn’t know what it had been like before that. Today they see Brazil as similar to what it used to be [like] before my government. Now these young people are understanding the struggle of my generation, and the PT, for democracy; for workers’ rights and against extreme poverty and social inequalities.
Critics of your foreign policy claim that while it was proactive, it did not consolidate its achievements. They mention UNUSUR (the Union of South American Nations) and ASPA (the Summit of South American-Arab Countries).
It takes time to build – which was what we were doing. Demolishing is quick. Those who came later to destroy South American integration and South-South co-operation, in Brazil and other countries, [could] only restore an almost colonial order in international relations. The resulting disaster is in plain sight. Many countries are already starting to build a multilateral and integration-oriented policy in the region, which will be strengthened when Brazil returns to a more humane path.
Containing China’s advance is a growing concern in some quarters. Do you think there will be a new Cold War, between China and the West?
I think it would be a mistake. The world no longer has room for a Cold War. We need co-operation to tackle global problems – problems that are common to everyone, such as climate change, hunger, poverty and pandemics. The world wastes too much time and resources on conflicts.
President Biden is pushing public spending to previously unthinkable levels and strengthening the role of the State. The opposite is being done in Brazil. Did we swap positions with the US?
The Biden administration has taken correct measures at a domestic level to restore the economy, the population’s standard of living and purchasing power, and the role of labour unions. Developed countries often adopt policies internally and then, through international organizations, oppose the same measures in developing countries.
After the 2016 coup [in Brazil], a series of absurd measures to dismantle the state, labour and environmental legislation, education and public health, were introduced. Public spending was to be frozen for 20 years. Of course, in practice they had to approve special spending to address the Covid-19 pandemic. A country’s life cannot be frozen for 20 years.
You have personally suffered in recent years with the obstruction of your candidacy, your imprisonment for 580 days, the loss of your grandson and your wife. How has this changed you? What kept you going in your darkest hours?
What kept me going even in the most difficult times was the certainty of my innocence, my faith in God, and solidarity from so many people. The people who were at the vigil [outside the prison], who stayed there for 580 days... Many people who didn’t even agree with me politically but made a point of defending truth and justice against the absurd and politically motivated conviction I suffered.
I know that what [was done against] me was against a political alternative for millions of Brazilians who had always been ignored by the state. I can’t reverse the time I lost or my sadness at the loss of loved ones. But I’m not interested in wasting time feeling hatred and resentment. I left [prison] cherishing every moment even more, every little thing I could do to build a better Brazil and a better world.
President of Cuba congratulated Lula da Silva on his 76th birthday
In a message on Twitter, the president recalled the birthday of the Brazilian leader celebrated yesterday, and expressed the Cuban people's admiration for him.
'Happy birthday and all days of struggle that lie ahead, dear brother @LulaOficial, Victor over hatred and political traps. Hugs from #Cuba that admires you, for you and your beloved #Brasil', he wrote.
Happy this and all the days of struggle that you have ahead, dear brother @LulaOficial, victor of hatred and political traps. A hug from #Cuba who admires you, for you and your beloved #Brasil pic.twitter.com/5cya5ia72E
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) October 28, 2021
Lula also received congratulations from the 'Partido de los trabajadores' PT (Workers' Party) of which he is a founding member and honorary president, and considered him the hope for a better Brazil.
According to a note published on the PT's official website, 'this anniversary has a special taste' because it is the first since Lula, 'as he promised, proved his innocence and showed he had been the victim of judicial persecution that tried to do away with his political leadership'.
The failed attempt took him out of the 2018 elections and kept him in prison for 580 days, but 'it did not get any close to erasing the brilliance of this Brazilian giant', the message said.
President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, also celebrated on Twitter the story of the struggle for the leader's people and wished him many more years of success.
Politicians, intellectuals, artists, students and workers from various parts of the world joined in the congratulations and turned hashtags #LulaDay and #ParabensPresidenteLula into the most commented ones on Twitter.
During his mandate, Lula achieved economic success for his country, mostly in reducing poverty, with social programs such as Zero Hunger or Bolsa Familiar (Family Fund), which helped bring some 30 million people out of poverty in less than a decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment