Lula’s supporters celebrate his 77th birthday this Thursday with a party in Rio de Janeiro, where they waved PT flags with an old photo of presidential candidate MAURO PIMENTEL (AFP)
Nobody in Brazil doubts that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is much bigger than the workers’ party he founded in a school in São Paulo in 1980 along with other trade unionists, some Catholic priests and intellectuals like the parents of singer Chico Buarque. Lula faces his sixth election this Sunday with a declared mission to defeat President Jair Bolsonaro and save Brazilian democracy. And if he wins, it will be a personal victory rather than a triumph for his party, which in recent years, plagued by scandal and dwindling power, has been seen as a liability rather than an asset. The PT caresses Lula’s return to power, but in this case she must share it with a broad alliance beginning on her left and extending to center right.
A reflection of Lula’s ambivalent relationship with the PT, some facts: All campaign advertising revolves around him, the four letters of his name are the trademark; The party appears to connoisseurs only in the form of a five-pointed star. And the red PT has gradually been replaced by a neutral white in recent weeks at the request of the most centrist coalition partners. The point is not to scare anyone who is unhappy with far-right Bolsonaro. And more relevantly, former President Dilma Rousseff disappeared from the rallies after the first lap when Lula was leading Bolsonaro by five points.
A good portion of the business community and elite would prefer a Lula without a PT, believing him to be far more pragmatic than his lifelong comrades. And on the other end of the spectrum, for many on the Brazilian left, it is a party with a hegemonic and personalist vocation. But faced with a situation they believe is critical, they have come together like never before.
The candidates will be measured in the last debate this Friday evening. Lula “needs to calibrate his speech to protect voters who want to defeat Bolsonaro but aren’t fans of the PT,” writes analyst Bruno Boghossian in Folha de S. Paulo. This voter embodies Brazil’s most international singer, Anitta, who wants the current president to be ousted from power by Lula, but flatly rejects any association with his party’s acronym.
No Brazilian formation has ever had enough power to rule alone. Partners were always needed. But this time the alliance was necessary for the previous step to win the elections. To iron out rough edges with economic power and to forget the mistakes of former President Rousseff that plunged Brazil into recession and led to her impeachment, Lula resurrected a seedy opponent. Geraldo Alckmin, a former figure in the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), returned to the helm of politics when he himself did not expect it. A well-known manager, he is a moderate and conservative Catholic.
To lead the fight against Bolsonaro, Lula forged the so-called coalition of hope, which is particularly broad. Alongside the PT, it includes the Partido Socialismo y Libertad (PSOL), which is a split from the left-wing PT; the Communist Party of Brazil; speech, by Marina Silva; and six other formations. Third and fourth place winners have asked for Lula’s voice, although only Simone Tebet has joined the campaign. Ciro Gomes is missing.
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Corruption is Bolsonaro’s main argument against Lula. The scandal involving systematic bribes by the oil company Petrobras in exchange for public works contracts, known as the Lava Jato, and the payment of bribes to MPs in exchange for parliamentary support, the Mensalão, still weighs heavily on public opinion, despite the convictions against Lula was cancelled.
Lula managed to get to the gates of the elections without going into details, without concrete commitments, not even on the economy or the names of possible ministers. Yes, he has announced “many women in government” and that the cabinet will not be monochromatic: “There are many people who have never been in the PT and have participated in my governments and that’s how it will be. It will not be a government of the PT, but a government of the Brazilian people, beyond the PT”.
After Bolsonaro’s victory four years ago, street vendors stopped selling PT paraphernalia born to defend workers and their labor rights. Many of those who had a hat or t-shirt put it away. Those red dresses hibernated until Lula got out of prison, was rehabilitated, and started campaigning for the presidency. From that moment, Bolsonaro had an opposition worthy of the name.
Lula’s charisma overshadows Labor Party corruption scandals and past failures in the eyes of many voters. There is immense longing for the profound social changes that were driven by the political will and economic boom during his tenure (2003-2010).
But aside from the PT’s supporters, much of the support he receives is not unconditional. Many of those voting for him this Sunday would prefer other flawless and more exciting candidates, but they believe he is the only one with the strength to defeat the far-right president. Others, convinced he was stealing from public coffers, will hold their noses to neutralize the threat Bolsonaro poses to them.
While former President Rousseff played a leading role at the start of the election campaign, in this final stretch even the most left-wing militants find it prudent not to risk anything, given what is at stake: the conquered right.
Lula, who turned 77 this Thursday, has announced he will not stand for re-election if he wins a third term, but he has no successor. Not even when he was in prison did he let anyone shadow him. It seems that his favorite is still Fernando Haddad, the candidate for governor of São Paulo, but it remains to be seen if he will achieve the trophy for Lula and the PT that has so far eluded them: leadership of the wealthiest and most populous state in the country.