It’s almost 5 p.m. this Sunday, January 1, 2023, when Brasilia capsizes with emotion. On Three Powers Square, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, President of Brazil re-elected for the third time, climbs the long marble ramp of the Planalto Presidential Palace, a symbol of Brazilian power. But standing next to the head of state in front of the crowd of tens of thousands of supporters are no officials or generals. An indigenous chief goes on Lula’s arm: Raoni Metuktire.
President Lula and his wife Rosangela da Silva (left, with their dog Resistencia) are surrounded by civil society figures including indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, a garbage collector, a disabled influencer, a teacher, a metal worker and a 10-year-old black boy climbs the steps of the Planalto Palace in Brasilia on January 1, 2023. SERGIO LIMA / AFP
Lula and Cacique Raoni at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, January 1, 2023. ERALDO PERES / AP
The President and the cacique. The Steelworker and the Kayapo. The symbolism of this couple is irresistible. 93-year-old Raoni, recognizable by his golden feather headdress and legendary, physically reduced lip plateau, was present at this historic moment. The investiture of the 39th President of Brazil, intended as a great national reconciliation.
The two men are not alone on the ramp. Along with First Lady Rosangela da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and his wife Maria Lucia, Lula brought his leashed dog, Resistencia. Also alongside him are a garbage collector, a disabled influencer, a teacher, a steel worker and a 10-year-old black boy in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. So many faces of Brazil.
“It’s carnival and revolution!” »
They are the ones who will drape the presidential kerchief around Lula’s neck in Jair Bolsonaro’s absence: the culmination of a celebration that has seen this extraordinary political beast make an unprecedented comeback. The miserable Nordeste child-turned-tribune, unionist and president of a golden decade (2003-2011) was imprisoned just under three years ago and sentenced to end his days there in disgrace. Now he is back at the head of his country.
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For the Lulists, the party had actually started the evening before. On January 1, 2023, at midnight, Jair Bolsonaro was officially no longer President of Brazil. In the capital stormed by leftist sympathizers, we kissed for the first time under fireworks launched from Lake Paranoa. Further on, on the Esplanade des Ministries, the cleaning teams are busy. The marble halls are washed down with lots of water.
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In the early morning, it is a red tide – that of hundreds of thousands of Lulists – that surges up the monumental axis of Brasilia, a grandiose 16-kilometer artery on which the country’s institutions are aligned. All of this quickly takes on the appearance of a fair. A food market and a huge stage have been set up on the lawn, where concerts are held until 4 a.m. “It’s carnival and revolution!” ‘ laughs Thalis, a 41-year-old theater actor, clutching his crossed-horse costume.
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