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Lula da Silva: From Brazil's President to Prison Inmates - and Back?

2022-09-29T16:24:21.425Z


Lula da Silva: From Brazil's President to Prison Inmates - and Back? Created: 09/29/2022Updated: 09/29/2022, 16:55 By: Florian Naumann, Sandra Kathe Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rose to the presidency from a poor background, later went to prison - and is now standing again in Brazil's elections. Brasília/São Paulo – Brazil is at a political crossroads. After four years in the presidency of right-


Lula da Silva: From Brazil's President to Prison Inmates - and Back?

Created: 09/29/2022Updated: 09/29/2022, 16:55

By: Florian Naumann, Sandra Kathe

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rose to the presidency from a poor background, later went to prison - and is now standing again in Brazil's elections.

Brasília/São Paulo – Brazil is at a political crossroads.

After four years in the presidency of right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, elections are coming up - and the hopes of Bolsonaro's opponents rest almost exclusively on an old acquaintance: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

On "Lula", as the 76-year-old political veteran is usually simply called at the time of the election.

"Old acquaintance" applies to Lula in two senses.

On the one hand by years of life.

On the other hand, because of its long political history.

Already 20 years ago, in 2002, the co-founder of the workers' party Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) was elected Brazil's president for the first time.

His term of office lasted from 2003 to 2011.

Above all, Lula's social policy was remembered: social programs helped to officially lift Brazil from the status of a developing country to that of an emerging country.

Lula in the Brazil election: "For many, he's an attractive figure"

In the 2010 election, Lula da Silva was no longer allowed to run.

His political legacy came from party friend Dilma Rousseff - Lula had chosen her as the successor candidate.

However, he himself did not live out a leisurely politician's pension: in 2017 he ended up behind bars after a corruption process that was also viewed critically internationally.

Ironically, Rousseff had dragged him indirectly into the misery.

Now he could celebrate a comeback – unless Bolsonaro prevails again.

The corruption sentence against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been overturned – now the worker-politician wants to return to Brazil's presidency.

(Archive image) © Silvia Izquierdo/dpa

Lula da Silva has been in the lead in the polls for months.

But the Labor Party politician is not undisputed.

"Lula is a stimulus for many," explained the author and Brazil expert Niklas Franzen to the 

Frankfurter Rundschau of IPPEN.MEDIA

.

This is partly due to the fact that in recent years there has been a deliberate mood against the PT.

Lula da Silva: A (former) president from the poorest of backgrounds

Lula spent the

early

years of his life in the destitute part of the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

He came from a poor background and was the second youngest of his parents' eight surviving children.

The family's situation worsened when Lula's father, moving to the state of São Paulo in the south of the country, left the family and started a second family with a cousin of his wife's.

Lula's mother followed him with their children in 1952.

But family relationships were obviously anything but easy.

For Lula and his siblings, this meant: A marginal school education at best, which ended after a few years with entering the world of work.

From the age of 12, Lula was already doing his part to support his family as a shoeshine boy, a peanut seller, a messenger or a laundry worker.

As a youngster, Lula trained as a metalworker and has remained in the industry, even after several job changes and a serious accident at work that left part of his little finger.

Labor activist on the way to Brazil's presidency: First success for Lula at the fourth attempt

It was at this time that Lula became interested in the work of the unions.

He joined the metal union in the late 1960s.

Shortly after joining, the apparently charismatic young man took on his first leadership roles.

In 1972 he was elected general secretary of his metalworkers' union in the regional group of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema.

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Even under the Brazilian military dictatorship, which lasted until 1985, Lula campaigned for workers' rights as a union leader.

In 1979 he led a strike and also organized demonstrations.

His involvement had unpleasant consequences: Lula was arrested for a few weeks in 1980.

That year, Lula da Silva also co-founded the PT.

For the Partido dos Trabalhadores he first appeared in 1989 as a candidate for the presidential election.

After losing elections in 1989, 1994 and 1998, the charismatic politician achieved his breakthrough in 2002.

In the second ballot, he prevailed with more than 61 percent of the votes against his competitor at the time, the Social Democrat José Serra.

In 2006, Lula was re-elected.

But the road to power was also linked to a change in image, as political scientist Tomas Kestler explained to

IPPEN.MEDIA

.

The worker developed into a statesman in a suit and tie: "Lula had to adapt to the rules of the game in Brazilian politics."

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's results in Brazil's presidential elections (1st ballot):

1989

17.18 percent

1994

27.04 percent

1998

31.71 percent

2002

46.44 percent

2006

48.61 percent

Lula as Brazil's President: Highly acclaimed social policy

Lula's presidency was shaped primarily by socio-political innovations and decisions.

In 2003, for example, his government launched the “Fome Zero” (zero hunger) program.

It was intended to provide millions of Brazilians living in deep poverty with food, for example by issuing vouchers.

According to various estimates, the poverty rate in the population may have fallen from 40 to 20 percent during the PT politician's tenure.

Up to 30 million people could have been lifted out of poverty.

The "Bolsa Família" project, social assistance for families who earn less than the equivalent of 46 euros per family member, was also remembered.

The program, which also provided needy families with school fees and access to the health system, continued until 2021.

Only Bolsonaro's government replaced it with a new social program.

Lula da Silva: Criticism and Late Corruption Condemnation

However, Lula's presidency was not entirely without criticism and problems.

For example, the politician was loudly criticized for fighting poverty without doing enough to address its causes.

Lula's collaboration with the Brazilian industrial magnate Blairo Maggi also aroused resentment.

Environmentalists accuse business representatives Maggi of being one of the main responsible for the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest.

Another dark shadow fell over Lula's (already ended) presidency in 2016: successor Dilma Rousseff was removed from office following a corruption scandal.

As a result of the allegations against Rousseff and a number of Brazilian companies around the oil company Petrobras, investigations against Lula da Silva also began in Operation “Lava Jato” (“Car Cleaner”).

Even before the 2018 Brazilian elections, Lula was arrested in a corruption trial in which the former president always protested his innocence and sentenced to more than twelve years in prison.

Lula was imprisoned in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, south of São Paulo, for a good 18 months.

Brazilian comeback: Lula is being rehabilitated – and now wants to overthrow Bolsonaro

However, Lula's conviction was controversial from the start.

In addition to politicians, international organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Committee campaigned for Lula's release.

The investigative magazine 

The Intercept

 reported that the ex-president's conviction should serve the sole purpose of deterring Lula from running against Bolsonaro.

Particularly spicy: Bolsonaro later made the then responsible judge Sérgio Moro his Minister of Justice.

In November 2019, Lula was released after almost 600 days in prison and in 2021 the Supreme Court finally overturned the sentences against him - Judge Moro was said to have been biased.

At the latest, the ex-president rose again to become the beacon of hope for socially and socially liberal-minded circles.

And a comeback seems quite conceivable.

According to a survey by the Datafolha Institute from August, Lula is well ahead of Bolsonaro, especially when it comes to favor with poorer sections of the population in Brazil.

Like the news magazine 

Globo

 reported, Lula achieved 54 percent approval among the “vulnerable” sections of the population, while among the “very rich” Brazilians, 34 percent of respondents supported the ex-president.

In the survey, Bolsonaro reached 24 percent among the poor and 42 percent among the rich respondents.

Lula is lucky in love again: "In love like a 20-year-old" with his new wife

As the first presidential candidate in the history of Brazil, Lula is running in his sixth election as a representative of a party alliance behind which numerous left-wing parties stand.

Lula's running mate in the October 2, 2022 election is socialist and former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin.

If none of the candidates wins an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot will follow on October 30th.

In the meantime, after his many low blows, Lula says he is lucky in love again: He is “in love like a 20-year-old,” he says – with the sociologist and PT activist Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, whom he met in May has married.

His second wife, to whom he was married for four decades, died of a stroke - just at the time of the "Lava Jato" investigation.

(

Sandra Kathe/fn

)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-29

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