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Announced his renewed candidacy: former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
Almost six months before the presidential elections in Brazil, former head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced his candidacy.
"Everything we have done and what the Brazilian people have achieved is being destroyed by the current government," the 76-year-old said at a rally in São Paulo on Saturday.
'We will not give up - not I and not our people.
The cause we fight for keeps us alive.”
Lula is running for his Labor Party's (PT) nomination in the October 2nd election.
The former governor of the state of São Paulo and former Lula rival, Gerardo Alckmin, wants to become vice president at his side.
Convicted of corruption in 2018
Lula ruled Brazil from 2003 to 2010. He lifted millions of people out of abject poverty with social programs.
Brazil also boomed economically during his tenure.
However, corruption also flourished under his presidency in the region's largest economy.
In 2018, he himself was sentenced to 12 years and a month in prison for corruption and money laundering.
That is why the left-wing politician was unable to take part in the 2018 presidential election, which the right-wing populist ex-military Jair Bolsonaro finally won.
In March last year, a Supreme Court judge overturned Lula's convictions.
He got his political rights back.
Soon after, he returned to the political stage.
In recent polls, Lula is well ahead of Bolsonaro, who wants to secure another term.
ktz/dpa