MADRID, 30 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
If the predictions of all the polls published even before he officially announced that he would stand for these elections are fulfilled, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will once again be president of Brazil starting this Sunday.
Lula already made good predictions and prevailed in the first round with around six million votes more than his rival, Jair Bolsonaro, who was underestimated in the polls and achieved more than expected. After that, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) hurried to add to his candidacy the support of that third way that Ciro Gomes represents, but above all Simone Tebet.
Despite the reproaches and even in the case of Gomes some resentment towards Lula, he even called him a fascist, it was an open secret that both would end up supporting him because neutrality or in the worst case his support for Bolsonaro would have meant political suicide.
Lula has the support of even former conservative Brazilian presidents, such as Fernando Henrique Cardoso, José Sarney and Fernando Collor de Mello, without forgetting that of leaders of the European left. A favor that the PT has used to show how isolated Brazil had been until now under Bolsonaro’s command.
As he did in the first round, Lula has emphasized that this Sunday’s meeting is not a question between two men, nor between two parties, but rather one of democracy against fascism. Bolsonaro’s coup rhetoric has been definitive for sectors traditionally opposed to the PT to have decided to opt for the former union leader.
His objective has been to build a moderate profile, capable of attracting the centrist electorate and distancing himself from the ghosts of communism that Bolsonarism shakes, and for this he has added his former rival, Geraldo Alckmin, as a running mate. The last gesture has been to reach out to his rivals. “There are no longer Bolsonaristas or Lulistas. The elections are over and we have a country,” he said.
During his previous term (2003-2010), Lula enjoyed great popularity among the working classes and lower incomes after managing to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, but also among the markets themselves and the banking entities, which they saw an opportunity in the commodity boom.
That period of abundance and prosperity was clouded from 2011, when the continuous corruption scandals meant his political death for at least 580 days, the time he spent in jail after being accused -later it was shown that unfairly- – of having participated in a plot for which dozens of politicians and businessmen profited.
The former Brazilian president has the favor of broad layers of society, such as young people, the unemployed, families with lower incomes, students, women, and even Catholics would vote for him, while the evangelicals, a group with a lot of power in Brazil, would vote for him. I would opt for the extreme right that Bolsonaro represents.
If Lula wins the elections, he will have to deal with one of the most conservative congresses in Brazil’s democratic history. Bolsonarist forces dominate the Chamber, with Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) having the greatest presence. An important challenge for the former union leader, who will have to reach agreements to fulfill electoral promises such as increasing social programs and greater environmental controls.
