The hair has grown white, so has the beard. But the extraordinary energy is still there. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 75, granted the World an interview, by videoconference, ten days after the annulment of his convictions in court. The leader of the Brazilian left speaks from his home, located in Sao Bernardo do Campo, in the suburbs of Sao Paulo, there, precisely, where his political career began, as union leader, during the great workers’ strikes of the 1970s Lula, who has regained his political rights, is determined to defeat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election and is now seriously considering a presidential candidacy.
Will you run for the 2022 presidential election against Jair Bolsonaro?
It is difficult today to give a simple yes or no answer. Judge Edson Fachin’s decision at the beginning of March proved my innocence, certainly five years late. For years 210 million Brazilians have been misled, forced to believe the lies of Judge Sergio Moro and the “Lava Jato” prosecutors, who behaved like real gangsters. The truth is today on the table, public. That’s all I wanted.
So, you’re asking me if I’m going to be a candidate in 2022? Honestly, I do not know ! I am 75 years old. In 2022, at the time of the elections, I will have 77. If I am still in great shape, and a consensus is established between the progressive parties of this country so that I am a candidate, well I will not see any problem to be! But I have already been a candidate, I have already been president and served two terms. I can also support someone in a good position to win. The most important thing is not to let Jair Bolsonaro rule this country more.
How do you see the situation in the country today?
I started in politics in the 1970s, and I have never seen my people suffer like they do today. People are dying at the gates of hospitals, hunger is back. And, faced with that, we have a president who prefers to buy firearms, rather than books and vaccines. Brazil is headed by a genocidal president. It is really very sad.
What the people want is what the Workers’ Party has offered them in the very recent past: a salary, a job, vaccines, education, growth. I think it is possible to rebuild a more humane country. When I was in power, Brazil had 4.5% unemployment, a minimum wage that was increasing every year. We were kind of a darling, the sixth world power. I joked with my French and English counterparts, telling them: “Soon, we will overtake you and threaten Germany!” All this to say that the Brazilian people deserve better than the current government.
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