Janja Silva, the unknown who married Lula and who comes into the light at 56

She is Lula's third wife, the one we didn't really expect, when the former Brazilian president became a widower at 71.

Rosângela Silva thus succeeded Marisa Leticia, the beloved second wife of Lula, mother of his 4 sons, who died in 2017 of a stroke after thirty years alongside the politician, including eight as first lady.

At his side also during the many campaigns of the tireless 76-year-old leader who is seeking the presidency for the seventh time this year.

In 2022, the one nicknamed "Janja" therefore took over, bringing her energy and enthusiasm to the candidate of the Workers' Party (PT), chaining meetings, and calls to vote on social networks.

The one who was unknown to the general public until recently quickly took her place within the campaign team, reserving the task of making the link with artists and influencers.

The smiling 50-year-old (she turned 56 in August) with a round face has thus been full of support.

From the stars of Tropicalism, like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, to the immense Chico Buarque, witness at their wedding last May, passing by the singer Anitta, actors of international stature like Wagner Moura (who played Carlos), but also influencers like the make up artist Juliette,

followed by more than 33 million subscribers, or sports fans starting with the former PSG player Rai… all have joined Lula's candidacy.

It was still Janja who was at the maneuver to organize the last big campaign meeting, the Super Live, in São Paulo on September 26, which brought together many artists on the stage.

Even American actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted support.

Read alsoIn Brazil, Lula and Bolsonaro each draw their cultural support

Omnipresent in the countryside

Its omnipresence has earned it criticism, particularly internally.

Not enough to dampen the motivation of Janja who asserted herself from meeting to meeting.

In her deep and serene voice, the orator with long brown hair introduces her husband's speeches, whom she simply calls “

” (love).

His Instagram account also testifies to his recent stylistic evolution.

The jeans, colorful T-shirts bearing the image of her husband, and leather jackets from the beginnings have recently given way to dressier, more "first lady" monochrome dresses, facing a Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in sneakers and jeans. , as if to signify a youthful dynamic.

The PT candidate is favored by all the pollsters.

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Rosangela and Lula da Silva campaigning in Salvador de Bahia, September 30, 2022. STRINGER / REUTERS

Unlike Marisa Leticia, who always remained discreet, Rosangêla does not hesitate to sing on stage and to express herself on political issues.

She thus has the armed arm of her husband in the seduction of a female electorate, already bristling against Jair Bolsonaro for his sexist remarks.

“It is the women who will decide this election.

Women who will help rebuild our country, the Brazil of hope,” she wrote on Instagram.

On official videos, it is always around the question of women that she positions herself, sensitive "to the difficulties encountered by mothers, very indebted", or to denounce in particular feminicides and violence against women in Brazil. .

The only more intimate subject she broaches in her meetings is the death of her mother, Mrs. Vani Terezinha Ferreira,

“Giving new meaning to the concept of first lady”

Guest of singer Mano Brown's podcast in September 2021, Lula described his future wife as someone "very politicized, with a well-made head in politics and very feminist".

This sensitivity is far from being artificial.

Graduated in sociology from the Federal University of Paraná, holder of an MBA in social management and sustainability, Janja earned her stripes as an activist a long time ago.

A member of the PT since she was 17, the sociologist also knew Lula through the party.

As the possibility of a victory looms, Janja sheds some light on her action as a future First Lady.

Asked by a follower on Instagram, she broached the subject in August: “We are working for me to become this first lady that you are waiting for”.

Adding mysteriously:

On September 15, she confirmed that she would not be an “

” (assistant), using the term used by Michelle Bolsonaro, the current first lady, to speak of wives.

When the wife of the far-right president flaunts “the honor, glory, strength and power of King Jesus” as her credo on Instagram, Janja aligns her academic and political background.

To Bolsonaro who calls on men to find "their princess", she replies that she only sees "warriors" in the assembly.

Read alsoMichelle Bolsonaro, the very pious Brazilian first lady caught up in business

Asked by the

media about the role of the first lady in July 2022, Lula replied with his usual spontaneity: "I don't think there should be a ministry dedicated to the first lady, but I am counting on her to m 'to help, to advise me and also to argue with me'.

And to add: “She is a young lady who has her own thinking, and she will have all the freedom to decide the role she wants to play”.

Visitor in prison

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Lula and his wife Janja Silva during an event at the Portela samba school.

(Rio de Janeiro, September 25, 2022.) MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP

To hear him, one would think the former president almost intimidated by the strong personality of Rosangela.

Yet initially, their meeting is that of an old lion of politics with a grassroots militant of the PT 20 years his junior.

It is in this context of political commitment that their paths would have crossed at the end of 2017, according to the press service of the PT, before the love story began in 2018, shortly before Lula was sent to prison in part of the vast anti-corruption operation Lava Jato (“Lavage Express”).

Sentenced to a 12-year sentence, the former president will spend eighteen months in Curitiba prison.

He will be definitively cleared in March 2021 after the cancellation of his convictions by the Supreme Court and thus again become eligible for the supreme office.

Released on November 8, 2019,

his first action was to introduce Janja to the crowd that had come to greet him.

And to kiss him full on the mouth right in Curitiba.

Because during the 580 days of detention, the sociologist was an unfailing support, multiplying the visits to the visiting room.

"We wrote 580 letters to each other, I still have them with me", said Lula on a visit to Paris in March 2020. And the one who has always cried out at political conspiracy to add: "It's it is thanks to this love that I left the prison without hatred”.

I'm in love with her like I'm 20

Lula da Silva

"Wall of Silence and Loyalty"

Brazil then discovers this stranger, and the media go in search of information on this girl from the south, born on August 27, 1966 in União da Vitória, in the state of Paraná.

We learn that she studied sociology and worked for nearly twenty years in the public company Itaipu Binacional, which manages the huge Itaipu dam.

But on his private life before Lula, nothing filters.

The magazine

reveals that she would have been married for ten years and has no children.

Our colleagues from the Curitiba

 write that in seeking to know more they found themselves confronted with a wall of "mutism and loyalty".

They inform all the same that Janja is the youngest and has two brothers and that she would have been married to a history teacher.

His father, José Clóvis da Silva, an 82-year-old retiree, still lives in Curitiba.

Contacted by the newspaper, her friends describe her as a “determined, organized, focused, loyal” woman.

And claim that the love at first sight with Lula would have taken place during a friendly football match in Guararema, in December 2017, where the ex-president was part of the team led by singer Chico Buarque.

On his Instagram account opened in May 2017 nothing exceeds either.

The first photo shared, that of her dog Thor, received 24 likes.

Then follow traditional selfies, photos of dinners with friends, hikes, jazz evenings with his great friend the lawyer Leandro Pedron, more images of dogs and calls for the release of Lula.

Before the rise in power towards the formalization of the couple.

And the number of followers which goes from 700 to 226,000.

Wedding dress

made in Brazil

The wedding will be celebrated on May 18, 2022, during a private ceremony reserved for a circle of relatives, including many artists, in a chic residence in São Paulo.

The bride comes forward in a dress

of course.

The hand-embroidered off-white creation is signed by the very prominent Helô Rocha.

Lula appears more than ever galvanized by their relationship: “I am in love with her as if I were 20 years old”, he never tires of repeating.

The couple never leaves each other and criss-crossed Brazil hand in hand during the marathon campaign.

United behind this slogan “love will win”, for the “Brazil of hope”.

A vast program to be put in place to repair a disunited Brazil like never before after four years of the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.

"

", "without fear of being happy", as Lula's official campaign anthem chants.