It's an open secret, as the old lion has been on an unofficial campaign for months already.
This Saturday, from São Paulo, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is embarking on the presidential battle in Brazil, scheduled for October 2 and 30.
At 76, Lula is ready to do battle with far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in a duel that promises to be fierce and of which he is, for the moment, the favorite.
Twelve years after leaving power with a stratospheric approval rate (87%), the icon of the Brazilian left, who is struggling to find a successor, must announce his candidacy in front of 4,000 supporters.
This is the sixth candidacy of the leader of the Workers' Party (PT), a figure as resilient as it is essential in the political landscape of Brazil, which he led during two terms of office (2003-2010).
Read alsoBrazil: a poll places former leader Lula well ahead of Bolsonaro in the next presidential election
For lack of a candidate who would make a third way viable, Lula is the only one who can beat 67-year-old Jair Bolsonaro at the polls.
He distances him in all the polls, but the outgoing president seems ready to do anything to retain power.
The fight therefore promises to be bitter between these two men who are opposites and who hate each other.
The Brazilian presidential election will bear witness to the extreme polarization of the immense emerging country of 213 million inhabitants.
“I believe I can do more and better”
“When I left the presidency, I no longer thought of being a candidate again,” Lula told American magazine Time this week.
But the former trade unionist cannot bear to have seen his legacy - reduction of inequalities, social policies, promotion of education - "destroyed, dismantled".
“I believe I can do more and do better than what I've already done,” he told Time.
Still, the context was quite different at the time.
Growth, with soaring commodity prices, had enabled Lula to lift 30 million Brazilians out of poverty.
This new candidacy has a taste of revenge for the ex-president, whose banishment from the race in 2018 had allowed the easy election of Jair Bolsonaro.
While imprisoned for a year and a half for corruption until November 2019, the political career of the ex-metalworker seemed to be over.
Until the Supreme Court overturned his convictions in March 2021.
VIDEO.
Convictions overturned by Brazil's Supreme Court: Lula free to face Bolsonaro in 2022
Lula has always said he is the victim of a political conspiracy intended to prevent him from competing in 2018 when he was - already - the favorite in the polls.
But for millions of Brazilians, he and his party still embody unbearable corruption.
An image to erase for Lula, as well as the discomfort created by his many recent slippages: controversial statements on abortion, on the police or on the middle classes.
Se o @LulaOficial continuar com essa incontinência verbal,
E se não invest em comunidades sociais de maneira inteligente e profissional
Vai permitir que o atual inquilino do Planalto tenha sérias chances de reeleição
— Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) May 1, 2022
In his interview with Time, the former leader also attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, this “good humorist (…) who puts on a show” and is “as responsible” for the war in his country as his Russian counterpart. Vladimir Poutine.
The writer Paulo Coelho denounced in a tweet Lula's "verbal incontinence" and, according to The Intercept, the very entourage of the former head of state encourages him to take a little rest.
Five months of fierce battle ahead
From next week, Lula will go on campaign and criss-cross the country - as President-candidate Bolsonaro has been doing for months - starting with the state of Minas Gerais, in the south-east.
"If he really wants to win the election, Lula must go to the streets, like Bolsonaro, be closer to the voters," said Sylvio Costa, founder of the Congresso em foco site.
Lula has formed a ticket with Geraldo Alckmin - 69, center right - as vice-president.
The former governor of São Paulo, if he does not have the charisma of Lula, is there to reassure voters from the center and the moderate right.
