Editorial of the “World”. Lula against Bolsonaro: it is now the possible poster of the presidential election of 2022 in Brazil. By canceling, on Monday March 8, all the convictions weighing on Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a Supreme Court judge returned all of his political rights to the former leftist president. And opened the way, at the same time, to a duel between the two heavyweights of modern Brazilian politics.
Judge Edson Fachin’s decision surprised everyone but, in reality, nothing surprising. For years, the press has reported on the irregularities accumulated by the anti-corruption operation “Lava Jato”. The revelations of the investigation site The Intercept confirmed it: Lula was convicted and imprisoned without concrete evidence of the acts of corruption of which he was accused, following a procedure which was in many ways illegal, which was probably intended to exclude him from the political game.
Lula’s eight years at the helm of Brazil, from 2003 to 2011, during which some 40 million of his compatriots were able to emerge from poverty, have deeply marked the history of the country. A former worker, Lula is today the only politician with sufficient charisma, popularity and experience to hope to beat Jair Bolsonaro in 2022. The return of this outstanding fighter to the political arena is therefore a salutary prospect, after two years of democratic, environmental and health devastation.
Multiple errors
This political “liberation” cannot, however, be regarded as providential. Incapable of producing new leaders up to the stakes in ten years, the Brazilian left is reduced to relying on its old historic leader. Lula is 75 years old, he started his political career four decades ago and has already been a presidential candidate five times. We can dream of more innovation to embody the future of the Latin American giant.
The Brazilian left is also short of a program. Undermined by corruption cases, humiliated by the dismissal of Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, and by the condemnations of Lula, struck by the arrival to power of Bolsonaro, the Workers’ Party (PT) adopted a posture of a besieged fortress and has deserted the debate of ideas. Lula himself, by focusing his speech on his legal setbacks, largely prevented the aggiornamento of his camp and the emergence of new figures out of his shadow.
However, the PT would benefit from carrying out a serious inventory of its thirteen years in power, an essential process that the injustice suffered by Lula and Dilma Rousseff has so far blocked. The errors of its management were numerous, in particular on the sensitive file of corruption. Crying conspiracy of the elites and the media should not exempt the left from a work of in-depth analysis on its share of responsibility in the coming to power of Jair Bolsonaro.
If he does show up, Lula will face very different challenges. The Brazil he led during the 2000s was a confident, optimistic and fast-growing country, driven by soaring commodity prices, which could finance ambitious social programs. The Brazil that he could take back in 2022 will have been laminated by years of economic crisis, plagued by doubt, bruised by the Covid-19 epidemic. Nothing says that his legendary talent will, this time, measure up to this storm.
