Veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, returned this Sunday to the stadium where he led the major workers’ strikes during Brazil’s dictatorship in the seventies, to start his seventh electoral campaign, which he hopes will culminate in a fourth term. Thousands of people filled the Vila Euclides stadium in São Bernardo do Campo, in the industrial belt of São Paulo, to officially kick off an electoral race that promises to be very close. “They ask me why I want a fourth term. Because, as long as I am alive, I will not allow the right wing, responsible for 400,000 deaths from COVID due to irresponsibility, to return [to power]. What future do you want for Brazilians if you don’t invest in education, health, employment?” Lula said in his speech, an unscripted address with his usual hoarse voice in which he recalled his mother and his first steps as a political leader.
This Sunday officially marks the start of the campaign for the October elections, with Lula as the sole left-wing reference and the right divided, with Flávio Bolsonaro, 45 years old and son of the former president, as the main candidate. Bolsonaro Jr. also launched his campaign in an emblematic place, on Copacabana beach in Rio, the political cradle of the clan.
The latest poll, released on Friday, forecasts a technical tie: Lula with 43% of the votes and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro with 40%.
“I want a fourth term to resolve some issues, like education. I want boys and girls well educated because investing in education is much cheaper than investing in prisons, so those kids have opportunities,” Lula said, who identifies himself as a son of the northeast, the poorest and most neglected Brazil until the PT came to power. “Thanks to every worker who on election day has the courage to put a nearly illiterate laborer in the presidency, who knows how each of you feels,” Lula said.
At the rally, the president expressed gratitude to many who have accompanied him in his career and life, especially his mother, Dona Lindu. “She is responsible for everything I am in life.” After recalling that she was illiterate, left her husband, and raised eight children alone, he sent a message to his compatriots: “Women of this country, do not lower your heads, we have to learn to respect you.”
Among the red tide filling the stadium in support of the former leftist union leader, Mildes Avelino, 75 years old and four decades of activism in the Workers’ Party (PT): “I am here because Lula is the only one who can guarantee democracy and sovereignty. If Brazil falls into the wrong hands, it will be handed over to the United States.” Also present, João Pedro Moreira Rocha, a 23-year-old lawyer born the year of Lula’s first victory. His father, a metalworker, listened to those first Lula rallies right here. He is clear about what should be the priority in case of victory: “Reducing social inequality.”
The presidential vote will again be a Lula-Bolsonaro showdown, this time with the clan’s eldest son because the patriarch is disqualified and imprisoned for attempting a coup after the 2022 defeat. Lula then won by only 1.8 points.
Benedita da Silva, veteran PT parliamentarian, former domestic worker, and Senate candidate, was the first speaker after Lula complained about the absence of women among the participants the day he was named the Workers’ Party candidate in early August. Da Silva emphasized how revolutionary it was that Lula proposed half a century ago that workers organize into a political party to win labor rights.
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