The scene dates from July 20. On the move in the Nordeste, Lula decides to make a hook by Caetés. The city is only a very small dot on the map of the dry and poor state of Pernambuco. But it is here, almost seventy-seven years ago, that the leader of the Brazilian left was born. Moved, the latter posed in front of a replica of his childhood home made of branches and beaten earth. A homecoming to which this man, who grew up in misery, was particularly attached, before returning to the political arena.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva knows it: this presidential campaign, which officially began on August 16, is the most important (and probably the last) of his very long political career. For the former trade unionist and left-wing president (2003-2011), candidate for a new mandate in the October 2 election, it is a question of nothing less than preserving the existence of the young Brazilian democracy by blocking the way to the extreme right of Jair Bolsonaro, who has multiplied in recent weeks the threats of a coup d’etat in the event of defeat in the ballot.
Lula candidate? It is a constant in Brazil. Almost a must. This year, the former steelworker is approaching his sixth presidential campaign (and even eighth, if we count those carried out to elect his successor Dilma Rousseff). A record in democracy. It is an understatement to say if the machine is broken in. In recent weeks, the charismatic leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) has multiplied meetings across the country. Carried by jubilant crowds, this outstanding tribune is in his element.
Everywhere, he repeats the same speech, recalling the happy memories of his presidency and torpedoing the health, economic and environmental record of his successor. With success: a poll by the Datafolha Institute gave him, at the end of July, 47% of voting intentions, or 18 points more than Jair Bolsonaro, at 29%. Swept away by this “clash of the titans”, the other candidates, such as the Labor Party Ciro Gomes or the centrist Simone Tebet, are reduced to making up the numbers: none exceeds the 8% mark.
Consensus program and slogan
For this decisive vote, Lula leaves very surrounded. His coalition, called “Let’s go together for Brazil”, brings together nine political parties, ranging from the center right to the libertarian left. Put in working order, this small militant army has a rather simple battle plan. The Nordeste being acquired on the left, the agricultural Center-West and the South on the extreme right, the Amazon remaining uncertain, the victory should be played in the regions of the South-East, and in particular of Sao Paulo, State the richest and most populous in the federation (34.6 million voters, or nearly 20% of the country).
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