Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday made his return to politics, attacking Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his “imbecile” COVID-19 policies, but declined to say whether he would run against him next year.
Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, has emerged as a top contender to unseat the far-right incumbent, after a judge on Monday annulled the leftist’s corruption convictions, reinstating his right to run for office.
In his first comments since the ruling, Lula, 75, gave a scathing takedown of Bolsonaro’s record, but he declined to formally throw his hat in the ring for the election in October next year.
Photo: AFP
“It would be petty of me to be thinking about 2022 right now,” he told a news conference. “Party leaders need to be talking about vaccines, about salaries.”
He was especially biting on Bolsonaro’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil has the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the US.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed COVID-19, flouted the advice of experts on containing it and made comments against vaccines.
“Don’t follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated,” Lula said. “The Earth is round and Bolsonaro thinks it’s flat... Without all this craziness that has swept the country, a lot of deaths could have been avoided.”
Bolsonaro fired back that his government “did its part.”
“There was never a lack of resources” for the pandemic, he told CNN Brasil. “Lula’s launching his campaign and since he has nothing to show ... it’s based on criticism, lies and disinformation.”
Lula, a former metal worker and union leader, led Brazil through an economic boom, and is remembered for programs that lifted tens of millions of people from poverty.
Opinion polls suggest that he is the best-placed politician to challenge Bolsonaro’s re-election, but he remains a highly controversial figure after being sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail on charges of taking bribes.
The allegations stem from “Operation Car Wash,” an investigation into a corruption scheme in which top politicians and business executives systematically siphoned billions of dollars from state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro.
Lula was jailed in April 2018 — taking him out of the running for that year’s presidential election, in which he was the front-runner — and spent more than 18 months in prison before being released pending appeal.
Supporters have said that he was the victim of a conspiracy to eliminate him from the 2018 race, which Bolsonaro ultimately won.
However, Lula still faces a series of corruption and influence-peddling charges, including the ones for which he was jailed.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin ruled that the court that convicted Lula did not have jurisdiction, but the decision was procedural and did not cover the merits of the cases, which are to be transferred to another court.
Lula said that he would resume touring Brazil once he is vaccinated against COVID-19 next week.
“I still feel young enough to fight, and I want you to know I’ll never give up,” he said, speaking at the headquarters of his former union in Sao Bernardo do Campo.
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