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"Politics is my DNA, only when I die will I stop doing it"

2021-03-07T00:10:41.725Z


Former Brazilian president Lula da Silva does not give his arm to twist. After overcoming the coronavirus, cancer and jail, he maintains that, if he won the judicial battle against disqualification, he would be willing to attend the 2022 presidential elections and face Bolsonaro


Former President of Brazil Luiz Inázio Lula da Silva this Friday during the interview at his home in São Bernardo do Campo.RICARDO STUCKERT

Lula da Silva is energy in its purest form.

He is 75 years old, has overcome cancer, coronavirus and jail, and says he feels "in his thirties."

He arrives at the telematic interview in his shirt sleeves and stands in front of the Zoom.

He looks comfortable;

It is Friday and he answers from his home in São Bernardo do Campo, a city near São Paulo, where he lives with Rosangela Silva, a sociologist with whom he fell in love while in prison.

Behind him are a few soft-cover books and a red table flag that displays the acronym of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) and that, due to a strange current of air, seems to move, as in a rally, in unison with Lula when he goes into effervescence.

Something that happens often.

It is a bottom-up phenomenon.

Lula first gets rid of the glasses (square and ostensibly large), then increases the speed of response and as the minutes go by he unleashes the political tiger that lives in him.

Speak, laugh and roar;

wave your arms, hit the table.

Lula, and this is one of the keys to his extraordinary ability to drag, travels without solution of continuity through the many Lulas that he has been.

Throughout an hour and a half of conversation, behind a screen that is getting smaller and smaller, the man who once was poor and who knows how to address other poor people, the sympathetic turner, the trade unionist who faced the military dictatorship, the candidate of the great rallies and even the president (2003-2011) who gave Brazil years of greatness, but also the prisoner who revolts against his sentence, the disabled politician who seeks to clear his name.

Lula served 580 days in jail for corruption and money laundering.

And he has another sentence for similar crimes.

That slab crushes him and he now directs all his energies against it.

“I learned from an illiterate mother that we cannot live with resentment, that we must be firm and believe that life can improve.

I am very optimistic, "he says in one of the few moments when he has remained still (and the flag with him).

It is only an instant.

Then he will continue shooting from one side to the other, pressing the accelerator of an engine that never runs out and that has led him to establish himself as a legend, both loved and hated, of the Latin American left.

Ask.

How does someone as restless as you handle confinement?

Answer.

I feel bad staying home.

I am not satisfied with languishing.

You are killing yourself inside.

Even though I'm in love and passionate, I need to go out, breathe freedom, talk to people.

When I am out of breath, it is not because of the coronavirus, it is because of the need to talk to people, to learn with them.

I was born at the door of a factory… But for now I will take care of myself and respect science.

When I am vaccinated and authorized, I will go out.

P

.

Brazil, unlike other countries in the area, is going through the worst moment of the pandemic.

Deaths have skyrocketed and vaccination is slow.

What's going on?

R.

Democracy in Brazil has suffered an accident because of Bolsonaro.

The president does not care about the covid or about the economy, education or international relations.

We stopped buying vaccines when we could, and we have stopped vaccinating when we should.

Right now, Bolsonaro continues to campaign against the vaccine and against isolation.

It is almost a genocide.

Brazil does not deserve this.

Q.

How do you explain that Bolsonaro continues with 30% popular support?

R.

Bolsonaro managed to bring together that part of society that is ultra-conservative, that defends the death penalty and that people go armed to the workplace, those who reject blacks, women's rights, LGBT, the unions ... But there are 70% who do not agree.

And it is that 70% that will guarantee democracy.

When the time comes, they will pronounce themselves.

P.

But, at the moment, you do not see a strong opposition.

The results of his party, the PT, in the last municipal elections were bad.

Isn't there a new leader missing?

R. It

remains that the next elections serve to measure our strength.

I remember that when the formations to the left of the PSOE won the mayoralty [of Madrid], many people said that the PSOE was finished.

But now it is the PSOE that governs Spain.

The PT remains the largest party in Brazil, the most organized political force.

But it has been the victim of a huge campaign of destruction, [Operation]

Lava Jato

.

My innocence is proven and the guilt of the Public Ministry, [former judge Sergio] Moro and the Federal Police, more than proven.

There was a conspiracy to prevent Lula from returning to the presidency of Brazil

.

Many people were involved in a lie, reinforced by the media.

Now that the truth is known, how are they going to tell society that, for five years, they convicted an innocent man?

Q.

If you managed to win the court battle, would you run for the presidential election?

R.

I do not necessarily have to be a candidate for president, because I already was.

But I'm in great health, and Joe Biden is older than I am and rules America.

In 2022, I'll only be 77 years old, a kid.

If at that moment the left parties understand that I can represent them, I have no problem doing so.

The PT, however, has other options, such as Fernando Haddad [candidate in 2018], and some governors.

The only possibility that it is me, because I am not going to dispute it with anyone, is that people understand that I am the best candidate.

If not, I will be content to go out into the streets to campaign for an ally of ours.

Q.

Speaking of the United States, the last act of Donald Trump was to encourage an assault on the Capitol.

Could something similar happen in Brazil if Bolsonaro loses the elections?

R.

Bolsonaro is going to lose the elections, and the victory will be for someone progressive, I hope it will be the PT.

But the president right now is facilitating the sale of arms, and those who buy them are not the workers.

Who is Bolsonaro selling weapons to?

To the agricultural elite, to ex-policemen, to the gang that killed Marielle [Franco, councilor of Rio de Janeiro]… If the PT wins the elections again, we will disarm the people and recover humanism.

There is only one remedy for this country: strengthen democracy.

I am absolutely clear that we can win the elections again.

What seems impossible today will be possible tomorrow.

This country is powerful.

I don't want society to vote for a Trump or a troglodyte like Bolsonaro ever again.

People have to vote for men who think of the good.

Q.

Or women, right, President?

R.

If there is a person who has bet on women, that is me.

In the PT we had a president and 50% of my party are women.

Q.

How is the Lula who came to power in 2003 different from the Lula today?

What did jail teach you?

R.

The Lula of today is no different from the Lula of 2003. I have more experience, I am a little older, but I still have the same desire and the same certainty that it is possible to change Brazil.

I dreamed that it was possible to build a strong economic bloc in South America.

Today, it is no longer possible to negotiate with the European Union.

Let's be honest, [my time] was the best moment in Latin America since Colón.

And now, the region must convince itself that it cannot continue to be the part of the world with the most unemployment, the most misery and the most violence.

Brazil has to regain international prominence and this is what the Americans do not want.

They don't want competition.

For example, it is not acceptable that Trump threatens to invade Venezuela and that European countries recognize Juan Guaidó as president.

How can you recognize an imposter, who did not stand for election?

Europe has disappeared from politics.

Everything is commissions.

Commissions for this, for that ... all bureaucrats.

Politics has to re-assume its role, make big decisions.

Q.

But what has changed personally with your imprisonment?

A.

If I said that I do not hold a grudge against some people, I would be lying.

But never in my life have I been carried away by my grudges.

When we feel hatred, we sleep badly, we digest badly.

As I was always aware of what was happening to me, I never doubted.

During my arrest, attempts were made to get me to come out with an electronic anklet.

And what did I tell them?

That I did not exchange my dignity for my freedom.

He was aware of Moro's lies.

Now it is time for the Supreme Court to vote and decide [Lula's defense requests the suspension of Moro, which would annul his trials].

For the first time they face a politician who is not afraid of them because he is innocent.

And the day the Supreme Court makes that decision, they will have to say that the others lied, that

Globo

lied, that the entire press lied.

It will be the moment of forgiveness.

I imagine the day when the main newscast said: "Good evening, today we want to apologize to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva because we believed Dallagnol and Moro's lie."

Q.

That is a utopia, right, President?

R.

You believe that it is impossible, but I believe that it will happen.

I do not know if I will be alive, but, even if I am in my grave, I will wake up for a few seconds with joy because at last the truth will have come to light.

Q.

Will you not leave politics sooner?

A.

No, I don't think so.

Politics is in my DNA, it is a part of my body.

When this cell stops fulfilling its function and I die, I will stop doing politics.

Outside of politics, there is no way out for humanity, for democracy, for economic growth and the distribution of wealth.

It all depends on politics.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-03-07

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