From the apartments in the center comes the chant at the end of a day and a year full of tension: “Ol, ol, ol, ol, Lula, Lula!” A few kilometers away, in front of the army headquarters, hundreds and hundreds of parked cars, tents follow , caravans and Brazilian flags on top of each other: “Brazil is with you, President, 17 white stars will not be defeated by one red star!” .
Everything is happening in Brasilia, the fabulous city that was born in the middle of nowhere and where this Sunday one of the biggest political events of the year will take place, the return to power of Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. The veteran leader of the Left, 77, is returning to take up residence at the Planalto Palace after four tumultuous years during which Jair Bolsonaro led to a “democratic emergency” according to analysts, political rivals and key figures in Brazil’s institutional framework. to the country.
“Bolsonaro was looking for borders, he was trying to rule without a counterweight, without a parliament, without justice. He tried but couldn’t. Although there were times when he wasn’t far from achieving several of his goals,” a man who attended the day said today, assuring EL MUNDO of this struggle of the main Brazilian institutions – especially the judiciary – for authoritarian impetus of the retired army captain.
At the end of a Saturday night saturated with the humidity of the southern summer and on the fringes of the end-of-year celebrations, the television screens registered an unexpected appearance: Hamilton Mourao, “acting President of the Republic”. The vice president publicly took the reins ahead of Bolsonaro’s flight to the United States, specifically to Kissimmee, a suburb of Orlando, the city that’s home to the Disney theme park.
“Turning power in a democracy is healthy and must be preserved”stressed Mourao, a retired military like Bolsonaro. The man, who was vice president for four years, sent a direct message to the Bolsonaristas, who have been demonstrating outside armed forces buildings for the past two months, asking for military intervention to prevent Lula from taking office as president.
“Let’s calm down, let’s get back to normal life,” pleaded Mourao, who was supposed to be the one to present Lula with the presidential sash in Bolsonaro’s absence, although he has so far insisted it wasn’t his responsibility.
These are unsettling days for the most extreme Bolsonaristas. On the last day of the year, he gave away a photo of Bolsonaro eating at a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) on his last day as president.
In Brasilia, on the other hand, the headquarters of the Banco do Brasil (CCBB) cultural center, a beautiful Bauhaus building, was buzzing with activity on this last day of the year. The interim seat of government has been operating there for weeks, and many of those responsible for an administration that will exist meet there 37 ministries in a country that is already a bureaucratic nightmare.
Geraldo Alckmin, the Conservative who lost to Lula in the election 16 years ago, headed this interim government. As of today, he is Vice-President and Minister for Development, Industry and Trade.
challenges
Lula’s government, which will take office this Sunday afternoon (night in Spain), begins with several challenges. Most important of all is getting rid of the enormous taint of corruption that has made Brazilian politics hell in the wake of the Lava Jato scandal and other attachments. A hell that ended with Lula spending 581 days in prison. He was released from prison thanks to a decision by the Supreme Court, which did not rule on the left leader’s innocence, but simply on the lack of jurisdiction of the court that tried him.
The “Luladrao” (“Lula, thief”) remains the order of the day for the majority of those who did not vote for him in the closest election since democracy returned to Brazil in 1985: Lula won 50.9 to 49, 1 %. . Should his government descend into corruption again, the damage to his party and the political system would be enormous.
The economic challenge is clear and somewhat paradoxical: parts of the new government accuse Bolsonaro of having deviated from orthodoxy in recent months and leaving them an expensive mortgage. The left accuses the right of overspending, even though it has already managed to abolish the spending cap that has been constitutional since Michel Temer’s presidency.
Lula also wants to recover the international presence of Brazil, greatly reduced in the Bolsonaro years. The man entering the presidency for the third time has the support of the United States, Europe, China and major Latin American countries. His first trip abroad will be to Argentina on the 24th of this month, with a triple mission: re-establishing relations with that country, reactivating Mercosur and returning to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
The expectation is high: already on the afternoon of December 31, almost 24 hours before the start of the performances, supporters of Lula had posted themselves near the esplanade of the ministries through which the new president must parade on his way to the congress and the Planalto -Palace. Security measures are very tight in a city that experienced severe unrest three weeks ago generated by extreme Bolsonaristas. It is feared that some of the people gathered in front of the army headquarters will move to the city center and there will be a confrontation between supporters and opponents of the new government.
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