The Brazil of reconstruction

Surrounded by more than 300,000 people, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in this Sunday as the new president of Brazil in his historic return to power, 20 years later.

Almost nothing is in Brazil today as it was in 2003 for Lula, with a victory that then reached 61% of the vote.

Today the distance with Jair Bolsonaro did not reach two points, but the political urgency is similar.

At his inauguration, Lula promised to work for the "resurrection" of Brazil after considering the inheritance received from the far-right Bolsonaro, deliberately absent from the ceremony and without having yet recognized his defeat, "terrifying."

The work ahead of him, Lula said, will be marked by the fight against poverty and inequalities of all kinds, political reconciliation,

They are first positive signs.

Lula, 77, recalled that his will not be a government of the Workers' Party (PT), but of the broad political front that he put together to defeat Bolsonaro and that ranges from the traditional right, represented by the vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and a fundamental piece in this puzzle installed in Brasilia, including various left-wing parties that have supported him against Bolsonaro and forced Lula to increase the number of ministries from 23 to 37. But he has reserved the most strategic portfolios for the PT, above all the Ministry of Economy, which will be occupied by Fernando Haddad (defeated by Bolsonaro in 2018), while Alckmin will be in charge of Industry, and Simone Tebet, the former Liberal candidate who opted for Lula in the second round, was rewarded with the Planning portfolio.

Mastering these balances will be key for Lula because the political margin available to him is very narrow.

He will govern with a Congress without its own majority and where the extreme right is strengthened.

The parity of forces in Brazil gives wings to a Parliament with ample capacities to block the proposals of the Executive.

Suffice it to recall the political trial against Dilma Rousseff in 2016, when Lula's heir had been less than two years since the start of her second term.

The new president affirmed at his inauguration that he does not arrive with the intention of revenge, although he announced that he will demand responsibilities for Bolsonaro's management of the pandemic.

The former president was a denier who opposed the covid-19 vaccine and mandatory quarantines.

The result was almost 700,000 deaths, a figure that Lula considered on Sunday "a genocide", although she did not expressly name Bolsonaro: it was not necessary either.

In the Brazil of reconstruction, it will be essential that the former president rise to the occasion.

In the second round, held on October 30, he obtained more than 58 million votes.

He still has enormous political capital that he will have to manage aware of the havoc that Bolsonarism can still cause.

The former president flew to Orlando (Florida) the Friday before he took office.

He thus avoided handing over the presidential sash to his successor, a democratic tradition that no other head of state had dared to break.

Bolsonarismo is alive in Brazil, and Lula da Silva will have to deal with it without losing sight of the fact that, right now, he embodies the hope for a better Brazil and that his main task, after his exciting return, is