A polarized country: How is the Brazil that Lula receives after four years of Bolsonaro in power

The elected president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will be sworn in on Sunday in the capital, Brasília, and will take office for the third time. It is the culmination of a political resurgence that is sure to excite his supporters and anger his rivals in a highly polarized nation.

But this term is unlikely to be like previous ones, coming after the closest presidential race in more than three decades and resistance to his assumption of power from some of his opponents, according to political analysts.

SIGHT: Thousands of people gather in Brasilia for the inauguration of Lula da Silva

The leftist overtook the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in the runoff on October 30 by less than two percentage points. for months, Bolsonaro had sown doubts about the reliability of electronic voting and his loyal supporters were reluctant to accept defeat.

Many of them have gathered outside military barracks ever since, questioning the results and calling on the armed forces to prevent Lula from becoming president.

His most staunch supporters resorted to what some authorities and members of the next government described as acts of “terrorism”, something that had not happened in the country since the beginning of the 1980s and that has caused a growing concern for security in the acts of the investiture day.

LOOK: “It has no precedents since democracy returned in Brazil”: the fanaticism that threatens the swearing in of Lula

“In 2003, the ceremony was very beautiful. There was not this bad and heavy environment”, said Carlos Melo, a professor of political science at Insper University in Sao Paulo, referring to the year that Lula first assumed the presidency. “Today there is a climate of terror.”

Student Tanya Albuquerque flew from Sao Paulo to Brasilia and her eyes filled with tears when she heard how local leftists greeted visitors at the capital’s airport. He decided to travel after seeing images of Lula’s first inauguration.

“Maybe tomorrow there won’t be 300,000 people like then. These are different and more divisive times. But I knew I wouldn’t be happy in front of a television.” Albuquerque, 23, said Saturday.

Lula has set himself the mission of healing a divided country. But he will have to do so in tougher economic conditions than he faced in his first two terms, when the global commodity boom delivered windfall profits to Brazil.

At the time, his executive’s flagship program, a social welfare plan, helped tens of millions of impoverished people reach the middle class. Many Brazilians traveled abroad for the first time. When he left office, Lula had an approval rating of 83%.

Since then, The Brazilian economy has suffered two deep recessions — the first during the presidency of his self-appointed successor, Dilma Rousseff, and the second during the coronavirus pandemic — and ordinary Brazilians have suffered a lot.

The new president has said that his priorities are to combat the poverty and invest in education and health care. In addition, he affirmed that he will stop the illegal deforestation of the Amazon. He sought the backing of moderate politicians to form a broad front to defeat Bolsonaro, and has selected some of them to be part of his government.

But given the country’s political fissures, it is highly unlikely that Lula regain the popularity he enjoyed in his day, or even have his approval rating exceed 50%, said Maurício Santoro, a professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

In addition, Santoro pointed out, the credibility of the new president and his Workers’ Party has been threatened by a vast investigation into corruption. Some members of the group went to prison, including Lula himself, until their sentences were annulled for procedural reasons. The Supreme Court then determined that the judge presiding over the case had sided with the prosecution to guarantee a conviction.

Lula and his supporters have maintained that he was a victim. Others were willing to see beyond the possible prevarication to remove Bolsonaro from power and reunite the country.

But the supporters of Bolsonaro they refuse to accept that someone they consider a criminal return to the most important position in the country. And with tension running high, a series of events have raised fears that violence could break out on inauguration day.

On December 12, dozens of people tried to invade a federal police building in Brasilia and cars and buses were burned in other parts of the city. On Christmas Eve, police arrested a 54-year-old man who admitted making a bomb that was found in a fuel truck heading to the capital’s airport.

He had been camped out in front of the army headquarters in Brasilia with hundreds of other Bolsonaro supporters since Nov. 12. He told police he was ready for war against communism and planned the attack with others he met at the protests, according to excerpts from his statement published by local press. The next day, the police found explosive devices and several bulletproof vests in a wooded area on the outskirts of the federal district.

Flávio Dino, who will be Lula’s Justice Minister, this week asked federal authorities to put an end to the “undemocratic” protests, which he described as “terrorist incubators”.

In response to a request from the team of Lulathe current Minister of Justice authorized the deployment of the national guard until January 2, and Federal Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes prohibited people from carrying weapons in Brazil during those days.

“This is the fruit of political polarization, of political extremism”, tosigned Nara Pavão, professor of political science at the Federal University of Pernambuco. Pavão noted that Bolsonaro, who has virtually disappeared from the political scene after losing his re-election bid, was slow to condemn the recent incidents.

“His silence is strategic: Bolsonaro needs to keep Bolsonaro alive,” explained.

Bolsonaro finally condemned the plan in his farewell speech on December 30 on social media, hours before he was to fly to the United States.. His absence at the inauguration will break with tradition and it remains unclear who will replace him to hand over the presidential sash to Lula at the Planalto Palace.

The lawyer Eduardo Coutinho will be there. For Christmas he gave himself a ticket to travel to Brasilia.

“I wish I was here when Bolsonaro’s plane took off, that’s the only thing that makes me almost as happy as tomorrow’s event,” Coutinho, 28, said after singing songs from Lula’s campaign on the plane. “I’m not usually so excited, but we need to vent and that’s what I came for. Brazil needs this to move forward.”

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.