From Brasilia
Brasília is ready for the inauguration of Lula da Silva. Cars that honk in celebration pass through the streets, hold out their hands with the characteristic L of the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), receive the same greetings from those who walk under the alternate sun and rain, always hot. T-shirt, hat, and flag stalls are already set up that promise that Brazil will be happy again. There is a climate of euphoria about to take place in the middle of the Brazilian capital, the geographical center and the Government, where everything is big: the avenues, the buildings, the green spaces, the clouds, the fountains, the Esplanade of the Ministries where 300,000 people are expected for this Sunday.
“It’s a historic moment, we’re going through very difficult times in Brazil, people are very happy about this moment, we’re going to be happy again,” says Marcia, a woman wearing her Landless Workers Movement (MST) cap. who came from Rio de Janeiro to attend the inauguration. People from many states pass by like her, such as Pernambuco, in the northeast where the PT reached 69.34% of the votes in the ballotage, the region where Lula was born and lived before moving with his family to São Paulo, in the south, and begin his history as a worker, trade unionist, political leader up to his two presidencies. This Sunday the third will begin.
The expectation is very great. This is Lula’s new term after the two previous ones between 2002 and 2010, and the end via impeachment in 2016 of Dilma Rousseff. A story cut short, followed by the chase against Lula who was imprisoned from April 2018 to November 2019. “I was on vigil in the Curitiba prison for 580 days, I was a cook, I made 25 kilos of rice per day, I am a PT member, my reason for living is the PT, it is Lula”, says Malvina Joana de Lima, a 71-year-old woman who came to Brasilia for what everything indicates will be a party.
Malvina carries a Brazilian flag with a plate of food in the center. She shows the hunger, that she returned to Brazil with the government of Jair Bolsonaro, as indicated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The celebration is also for the end of the four years of Bolsonaro. “All of his government was destruction,” says Mirtes, also from Rio de Janeiro in Brasilia. Mirtes also mentions what was the main news on Friday when Bolsonaro took a plane to the United States: “He left the country, but we are confident that he will have to pay for many of the things he owes, for everything he did, the deaths from covid , all the people who died without any need”.
The escape and the threats
Speculation about Bolsonaro’s possible departure from the country had been going on for days, until his destination was finally confirmed: Orlando, along with his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, to a house valued at almost a thousand dollars a day, for a still undetermined period of time, according to the Brazilian press. So Bolsonaro not only will not pass the presidential sash to Lula on Sunday, but he will also be out of the countryin an exit that many read as an escape in view of the end of his political immunity and the uncertainty that is opening up. Who will pass the presidential sash to Lula? It is still an open questionin particular by the outgoing vice president, Hamilton Mourao, also stated that he will not.
“We defeated Bolsonaro, but Bolsonaro continues, fascism continues,” says Mirtes. This idea is one of the most established: his departure from the Planalto Palace does not mean the end of the political subject that was articulated and consolidated during his four years, particularly in view of the events that have occurred since his defeat on October 30. First there were the roadblocks, then the mobilizations to the military barracks to request an intervention, followed by camps at the door of several of them, as in Brasilia, where vestiges still remain. In all the episodes, Bolsonaro opted for silence until, when the limit point was reached, he stood out or made a relative condemnation.
It was also in Brasilia where the most worrying events took place in December. First the attack by a group of bolsonaristas who burned cars, buses, tried to enter the headquarters of the Federal Policean action that this week gave rise to police interventions with the arrest of four people for “the crimes investigated are those of qualified damage, fire, criminal association, violent abolition of the rule of law and coup d’état.” Then, on Christmas Eve, It occurred the attempted explosion of a truck with gasoline by a bolsonarista who had kept an arsenal in an apartment.
“There is no concern, the Federal Police are there, they took all the precautions, people are calm,” says Marcia. Her opinion, however, is not shared by several who remain alert for Sunday, in view of the radicalization of some Bolsonarists. In this context, Alexander de Moraes, minister of the Federal Supreme Court, prohibited the carrying of weapons in Brasilia from last Wednesday until next Tuesday. “It will not be small terrorist groups that paralyze the institutions of Brazilian democracy, that has no place in Brazil,” said the next Justice Minister of Lula’s government, Flavio Dino.
The international comeback
Bolsonaro led Brazil to a international isolation growing in recent months. One of the most notorious cases was the cooling off to the distance with the current White House under Joe Biden. Lula’s return isfor that also, the re-entry of Brazil to the very complex current international scene. The South American giant, more than any other in Latin America, is also a country with the capacity to play a leading role in various arenas and international agendas, such as the BRICS or climate change, one of the main flags raised by the PT leader on his return .
This expectation for the return of Lula has its translation in lA number of confirmed leaders for Sunday: about 18, in addition to important delegations from different powers, such as the United States, Russia and China. Brasilia will be the headquarters of international politics at the beginning of 2023. One of the questions is whether Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will finally attend, whose ban on entering the country was lifted last Friday. His presence would be a significant event for Caracas, particularly after the official end of the so-called “interim government” that occurred this week.
It is already known that Lula will make his first trips to Argentina, Washington and Beijing. It will be part of the beginning of his government, the third and last term of the country’s main left-wing leader in the last thirty years. He will face the challenge of rebuilding coexistence in a divided society, the belief and functioning of democracy, its institutions, as well as meeting urgent demands, such as growing inequality. He will do so accompanied by a coalition cabinet, where the PT and its closest allies are in strategic positions, such as the Ministry of Finance, in the hands of Fernando Haddad. Everything will begin this Sunday, when Lula once again wears the green and yellow band under the cloudy sky of Brasilia.