By Gerardo Szalkowicz on November 6, 2022
“Democracy is back in Brazil”, shouts Lula, forcing to the maximum the little thread of hoarse voice he has left as he raises his fist and looks at the sky from the stage-truck after 11 p.m. of a historic night full of emotions. The phrase raises to the top the enormous fervor of that river of people crowded along the traditional Paulista Avenue, perhaps because it synthesizes in one concept so many feelings: joy, relief, hope, uncertainty, euphoria. But, above all, relief. For the end of a nightmare that lasted six years, two post-coup and four of bolsonarismo.
“The people want books instead of guns”, this giant of 5 feet 6 inches vociferated with a stainless energy that makes a mockery of his recently turned 77 years old. And he earns the umpteenth ovation of the night when he names that idea-force that symbolizes the dispute of projects that was at stake in this election, the most important since the return of democracy. After the speech of the newly elected president, the party starts, enlivened by the legendary Daniela Mercury until after 2am, between samba, beer and cachaça, agitation that will continue until dawn in corners and bars all over the country; a landscape of permanent hugs and tears that leaves no words to spare.
“I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, even for those who did not vote for me. There are not two Brazils”, said the first working class president of the South American giant a couple of hours before in front of hundreds of journalists at the Intercontinental Hotel. And he gives a first sign of the need to depolarize the society split in two that the polls showed and the panorama that opens after such a tight victory and a defeated but at the same time strengthened bolsonarismo.
“Our commitment is to end hunger again. We cannot accept as normal that millions do not have enough to eat”, he emphasizes in his speech. The priority-emergency is to dismantle misery – as he did in his previous mandates – and that those 33 million people who today go hungry again in one of the countries that produces the most food. He also announces measures related to health, education, the (thousands) of homeless people, the return of the Ministry of Culture and the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, the reindustrialization of the economy and the end of deforestation in the Amazon. In short, an ambitious program but in line with his cross-cutting promise: to rebuild Brazil.
“Today we tell the world that Brazil is back, that Brazil is too big to be relegated to the sad role of pariah of the world”, says Lula and promises to reinsert Brazil in the architecture of regional integration and to give new impetus to the Brics group. His return to the international arena modifies the scenario and oxygenates the renewed Latin American progressive pole; will Lula occupy that leadership space vacant since the departure of Chávez in 2013?
The other half
“It is necessary to resume the dialogue with the Legislative and Judicial Power. Without attempts to intervene, control, co-opt, seeking to rebuild the harmonic coexistence among the three powers”, warns Lula glimpsing the bogged down governability that lies ahead. Bolsonaro lost but surpassed the expected ceiling and reduced the difference to only 1.8%, while Bolsonarism consolidated itself as a national force with the three main governorships (Sao Paulo, Rio and Minas Gerais) and the first minority in both chambers of Congress.
It will be necessary to continue unraveling the growth of the extreme right wing in the world, which has Brazil as its main beacon in the region. A symptom of an era where neo-fascist forces not only consolidate their fanatical and retrograde base, but also manage to challenge broad sectors and capitalize on social discontent. Bolsonaro usually slips in his oratory but plays with lucidity that “anti-system” role that confronts the Supreme Court judges or the big media. It is not only a phenomenon settled in the fake news industry and evangelical churches.
Resurrection
“I consider that I had a resurrection process in Brazilian politics. They tried to bury me alive and now I am here to govern the country”, says Lula, the man of a thousand battles, and highlights a long path marked by resilience. That of the boy who arrived from Pernambuco with his mother and seven siblings fleeing from hunger; that of the mechanic lathe operator who in the late 70’s built his union leadership by standing up to the dictatorship in the industrial sector of Sao Paulo; that of the political leader who founded the PT and ran three times for the presidency until winning the fourth time just 20 years ago; the president who lifted 40 million people out of poverty and left office with a very high approval rating; the man who overcame larynx cancer and suffered the death of two wives; the victim of the biggest case of law fare, which included 580 days in prison, his proscription and media lynching.
“It is not the number of years a person has that ages a person but the lack of cause, the lack of motivation for the struggle. And that is why I made up my mind: Brazil is my cause, the people are my cause, and fighting misery is the reason why I will live until the end of my life that way.” Thus closes his first resurrection speech of this 77 year old who gave back to so many Brazilians the hope of “being happy again”.
Source: ALAI, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US