The presidential campaign was officially launched and the first knocks were given.
Lula launched his campaign for the October election in Brazil on Tuesday by choosing, like his rival outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, a place that has deeply marked his political career: the factories where he embraced trade unionism.
Favorite in the polls, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 76, held his first meeting in an automobile factory in his stronghold of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, an industrial area where he was a milling turner, before becoming a union leader. in the 1970s.
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“This is where it all started: here I acquired political awareness (…) On this important day in my life, at the start of the election campaign, I came here to tell you that we are going to win the elections “, Launched the favorite of the polls, dressed in a white shirt and perched on a plateau, surrounded by hundreds of metalworkers.
Despite his age, he says he feels in him the same "energy as at 30" and that he intends to "take back the country" from Jair Bolsonaro whom he describes as "genocidal" and "negationist" for his management of the pandemic. which claimed 680,000 lives in Brazil.
"If there's anyone possessed by the devil, it's Bolsonaro," the president said from 2003 to 2010 to cheers.
"Lula is the hope of Brazilians to improve their conditions, he represents the power of workers," said Mauricio Souza, 48, a welder, who greeted his candidate with a trumpet.
This return to union sources, "Lula has always gone there during the key moments of his political career, to strengthen his image as a representative of the workers", says Adriano Laureno, analyst at the Prospectiva firm.
“As for Bolsonaro, he wants to present himself as a chosen one of God who survived the attack” with knives in 2018, continues this specialist, for whom this election is “the most polarized” since the end of the dictatorship. military which lasted from 1964 to 1985.
Bolsonaro with a patriotic and religious speech
Jair Bolsonaro was earlier in Minas Gerais, in Juiz de Fora "the city where I was born again", hoisted on a platform installed on the same crossroads where he had been stabbed by an unbalanced four years ago, brushing against the dead.
Dressed in a black jacket buttoned up to the neck concealing the shapes of a bulletproof vest, the former army captain, 67, gave a speech loaded with patriotic declarations and allusions to God and to the Bible.
He reiterated his promise to fight double-digit inflation, abortion, drugs and defend 'private property', brandishing the 'communist' threat to Brazil if he loses the October election to his rival Lula .
"Mito, mito"
(myth, editor's note)
, chanted the supporters of the far-right leader gathered around the slogan "God, fatherland, family and freedom", several of whom were dressed in T-shirts in the colors of Brazil.
Jair Bolsonaro then gave the floor to the First Lady, a fervent evangelical given as much, if not more, ovation than her husband.
Michelle Bolsonaro invited the audience to close their eyes and recite the "Our Father".
"It's about the future of the family, the homeland, most of the people who here are faithful to God," said Marcio Bargiona, a 55-year-old former policeman.
“The cleansing started four years ago, I want it to continue, I want the left to be rooted out of the country,” said Jaqueline Lopes, a 50-year-old teacher from Rio de Janeiro.
Lula and Bolsonaro reunited in Brasilia
Lula, who regained his political rights in 2021 after his convictions were overturned in a huge corruption suspicion case, is leading the polls although his opponent seems to be closing the gap.
Monday evening, a poll by the Ipec institute still gave a comfortable advantage to the former left-wing president, with 44% of voting intentions in the first round, against 32% for the current head of state.
On Tuesday evening, Lula and Bolsonaro attended together, a few meters from each other but without speaking to each other, the ceremony of taking office of Judge Alexandre de Moraes as president of the Superior Electoral Court. (TSE) in Brasília.
This Supreme Court magistrate is one of President Bolsonaro's pet peeves, against whom he ordered the opening of an investigation for disseminating false information about the electoral system.
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The Head of State has constantly questioned the reliability of the electronic ballot boxes used in the country since 1996, citing "fraud" without providing evidence.
Attacks which raise fears that he will not recognize the result of the ballot in the event of defeat.
In his inaugural speech, Justice de Moraes praised electronic voting.
“We are one of the largest democracies in the world (…) but we are the only one that counts and discloses the results on the same day, with agility, competence and transparency.
It is a reason for national pride,” he said.