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Lula launches new presidential marketing campaign to ‘rebuild Brazil’

SAO PAULO: Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva introduced his marketing campaign for a brand new presidential time period Saturday, vowing to rebuild Brazil after what he known as the “irresponsible and legal” management of far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. The marketing campaign release sealed a outstanding political comeback for Lula (2003-2010), 4 years after the 76-year-old leftist icon used to be jailed on arguable corruption fees.

“We’re in a position to paintings now not handiest to win the election on October 2, however to rebuild and turn into Brazil, which shall be much more tough,” the charismatic however tarnished steelworker-turned-politician informed a rally in Sao Paulo, status earlier than a large Brazilian flag. Talking in his trademark gravelly voice, he mentioned Bolsonaro-whom he didn’t point out by means of name-had made Brazil a “pariah” with polarizing insurance policies, assaults on democratic establishments and surging destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

“We want to trade Brazil as soon as back… We want to go back to a spot the place no person ever dares to defy democracy back. We want to ship fascism again to the sewer of historical past, the place it must had been all alongside,” he informed a cheering crowd of hundreds, calling on “all democrats” to sign up for him.

It used to be infrequently a secret Lula, who has loved a long-though shrinking-lead within the polls, would soar into the marketing campaign, which doesn’t formally get started till August. He has been in unofficial marketing campaign mode since March ultimate 12 months, when the Superb Court docket annulled the corruption convictions that sidelined him from politics. The ruling immediately arrange this 12 months’s elections as a polarizing conflict between arch-enemies Lula and Bolsonaro.

Wonder go back

Lula left workplace with approval rankings of 87 %, after presiding over a golden duration that lifted some 30 million Brazilians from poverty. However the onetime shoeshine boy’s towering legacy got here crashing down with the explosion of “Operation Automobile Wash,” a sweeping investigation that exposed an enormous corruption scheme focused on state-run oil corporate Petrobras.

Lula, who calls the case a conspiracy, used to be convicted on bribe-taking fees and jailed from April 2018 to November 2019 — lacking the 2018 presidential race, which Bolsonaro gained. In a Brazil deeply divided over Bolsonaro’s combative taste, social media polemics, susceptible efficiency at the financial system and chaotic dealing with of COVID-19, Lula returned to the hoop with the instant standing of front-runner.

Slipping ballot numbers

However Bolsonaro, 67, has narrowed the distance in the newest polls-and made it transparent he gained’t go away energy and not using a battle. Lula has in the meantime made a sequence of new gaffes, together with politically tone-deaf remarks on abortion, the police and the center magnificence. He has additionally regarded out of sync with global leaders he aspires to rub elbows with again-saying, for instance, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “as accountable as” Russia’s Vladimir Putin for the Ukraine battle.

Lula has reportedly shaken up his marketing campaign workforce just lately, taking out long-time best friend Franklin Martins as communications leader. “He has made a number of disastrous statements in contemporary weeks,” Sylvio Costa, founder of reports website online Congresso em Foco, informed AFP. “And, above all, Lula wishes to visit the road.” The Employees’ Birthday party founder mentioned he would now do exactly that, crisscrossing the rustic to satisfy with “the folks.” Dressed in a pointy military swimsuit, his blouse open on the collar, Lula caught strictly to the script at his rally, somewhat than talking off the cuff as he in most cases does.

However he used to be quick on tangible planks for his platform. “As a substitute of guarantees, I provide the immense legacy of our management,” he mentioned. Relationship the cautious industry sector and in search of to construct a extensive base, Lula has tapped market-friendly centrist Geraldo Alckmin-the opponent he defeated within the 2006 presidential race-as his running-mate.

“Brazil these days has probably the most disastrous and vicious executive in its historical past. Lula is our handiest hope,” Alckmin, a former Sao Paulo governor who used to be house with a light case of COVID-19, informed the rally by means of video hyperlink. Cheering the veteran leftist on, 63-year-old retiree Odilon da Silva Freire agreed. “Lula ruled for everybody, particularly the deficient,” he mentioned. “He needs to be president back. He’s the most efficient we ever had.” – AFP

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