{"id":28896,"date":"2023-01-02T05:46:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T05:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=28896"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:18:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T17:18:32","slug":"lula-da-silva-promised-to-restore-unity-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/01\/02\/lula-da-silva-promised-to-restore-unity-in-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Lula da Silva: Promised to restore unity in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tearful Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva has vowed to haul Brazil out of Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s era of \u201cdevastation\u201d and kickstart a new phase of reconciliation, environmental preservation and social justice after being sworn in as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fighting back tears as he addressed tens of thousands of supporters who had packed the plaza outside the presidential palace in Bras\u00edlia, Lula declared the end of \u201cone of the worst periods in Brazilian history\u201d under the former far-right president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[It was] an era of darkness, uncertainty and great suffering \u2026 but this nightmare is over,\u201d Lula said, vowing to reunite the bitterly divided South American country and govern not just for those who elected him in October\u2019s historic election, but all 215 million Brazilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is in nobody\u2019s interest for our country to be in a constant state of ferment,\u201d Lula said, urging citizens to rebuild friendships destroyed by years of hate speech and lies. \u201cThere aren\u2019t two Brazils. We are one single people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The veteran leftwinger, a former factory worker who was president from 2003 to 2010, broke down as he outlined plans to wage war on hunger, which he called \u201cthe gravest crime committed against the Brazilian people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen are rummaging through the rubbish to feed their children,\u201d said Lula, 77. \u201cEntire families are sleeping out in the open, exposed to the cold, rain and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil\u2019s new president did not mention his right-wing predecessor by name. But he excoriated the damage done by Bolsonaro\u2019s four-year administration during which nearly 700,000 Brazilians died of a mishandled Covid outbreak, millions were plunged into poverty, and Amazon deforestation soared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo amnesty! No amnesty!\u201d the crowd bellowed of Bolsonaro, who many want brought to justice for sabotaging Covid containment efforts and vaccination against an illness he called \u201ca little flu\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lula
Lula after receiving the presidential sash, accompanied by his wife, Rosangela, Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, and other community leaders.Photograph: S\u00e9rgio Lima\/AFP\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBolsonaro killed my son. He was 20 when he died,\u201d said one man in the crowd, Waldecir da Costa, his hands shaking with anger as he held up a photograph of his late child on his phone. \u201cI want him to pay for everything he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing congress shortly after being sworn in on Sunday afternoon, Lula said the \u201ccriminal behaviour of a denialist and obscurantist government that treated people\u2019s lives with callousness\u201d during the pandemic should not go unpunished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro took refuge in the US on Friday, refusing to hand the presidential sash to his leftist rival as is democratic tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, during a profoundly symbolic and emotionally charged ceremony outside the presidential palace, that task was performed by Aline Sousa, a black rubbish collector from Brazil\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lula strode up the ramp into the palace flanked by eight representatives of Brazil\u2019s diverse society including one of its most revered Indigenous leaders, Raoni Metuktire, a rap DJ and metalworker and a 10-year-old child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vivi Reis, a leftist politician from the Amazon, shed tears as she watched Lula\u2019s entrance. \u201cAfter so much tragedy and a government that plunged Brazil into destitution and hunger, we now see that we have overcome this. We are here, we resisted \u2013 and we have won.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huge crowds of ecstatic Lula supporters flooded the streets of Brazil\u2019s capital to celebrate the sensational political revival of a man who just over three years ago was languishing in prison on corruption charges that were later annulled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We feel dizzyingly unfathomable relief,\u201d said the journalist Arimatea Lafayette, 59, as red-clad revellers marched towards the congress building on Sunday morning to toast Lula\u2019s return and the downfall of\u00a0Bolsonaro, who has taken up residence in the Florida mansion of an MMA fighter. It is unclear when he plans to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been through four years of terror and now we feel free,\u201d added Lafayette, who had flown in from the north-eastern state of Alagoas wearing a T-shirt stamped with Lula\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Supporters
Supporters of Brazil\u2019s new President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva react as they gather in the surroundings of the National Congress to follow his inaugurationPhotograph: Carl de Souza\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Franceli Anjos, a 60-year-old feminist, had travelled 55 hours by road from the Amazon city of Santar\u00e9m to witness the long-awaited end of Bolsonaro\u2019s chaotic reign. \u201cI\u2019m convinced a new spring has arrived,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas Rodrigues\u2019s hands trembled with emotion as he described his delight at Lula\u2019s sensational comeback, exactly 20 years after the former union leader became Brazil\u2019s first working-class president in January 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole of Brazil is here \u2013 that\u2019s what Lula\u2019s capable of,\u201d the 25-year-old said after stepping off a bus from the southern state of Santa Catarina, where he is part of the landless workers\u2019 movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lula\u2019s American biographer John D French said he believed that after declaring war on hunger \u2013 a hallmark of Lula\u2019s first government \u2013 the new president\u2019s top priority would be reuniting a bitterly divided nation after a poisonous election campaign marred by violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what he\u2019d like would be a generalised reconciliation \u2026 and a standing down of the levels of conflict,\u201d French said, although he warned that would be difficult given the toxic chasm between Lulistas and Bolsonaristas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe notion that everything is going to be roses and peaches and cream [is misguided]. I think this is going to be a very conflictual period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s narrow defeat in October\u2019s election \u2013 which he lost by 2m votes \u2013 sent a wave of relief over progressive Brazilians desperate to see the back of a man they accused of wrecking Brazil\u2019s environment and place in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French said that relief was reminiscent of Democrats\u2019 reaction to Donald Trump\u2019s 2020 demise. \u201c[People were] like: \u2018Phew, OK \u2013 now things can go back to normal.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut they didn\u2019t go back to normal in the US. Nothing is normal politically. And it\u2019s not going to return to some sort of placid normality [in Brazil, either].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the mere prospect of a fresh start under a progressive and inclusive Lula government \u2013 which has vowed to fight environmental crime and named an Indigenous woman to lead Brazil\u2019s first-ever ministry for Indigenous people \u2013 has thrilled supporters who have flocked to the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know it won\u2019t be easy for Lula to rebuild everything that Bolsonarismo has destroyed. But I feel hopeful. If there\u2019s anyone who enjoys the popular support and international respect from leaders around the planet needed to rebuild Brazil\u2019s relationships with the world, it\u2019s Lula,\u201d said Diogo Virg\u00edlio Teixeira, a 41-year-old anthropologist from S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tearful Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva has vowed to haul Brazil out of Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s era of \u201cdevastation\u201d and kickstart a new phase of reconciliation, environmental preservation and social justice after being sworn in as president. Fighting back tears as he addressed tens of thousands of supporters who had packed the plaza outside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,5310,8657,2701,6573,559,2422,1725,5719,10387,11583,9784,9194,9214,287,11555,9331,7711,10767,6693,1384,5222,9171,9742,8043,913,6576,5241,6287,6121,911,9196,11365,6738,8057,746,5787,5321,8220,6351,2264,13034,12298,10954,603,6030,10419,9515,3874,5423,10634,8138,9683,6871,12287,7964,11973,9457,5485,7039,9431,3805,10199,11377,5646,8306,10716,9028,10599,6788,10577,10041,9176,9869,11089,6262,7231,11957,6348,5223,5251,5273,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-28896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-amazon","tag-amnesty","tag-behaviour","tag-black","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-brazilian","tag-bus","tag-campaign","tag-capital","tag-charged","tag-charges","tag-child","tag-children","tag-citizens","tag-city","tag-cold","tag-conflict","tag-congress","tag-corruption","tag-covid","tag-crowd","tag-da","tag-deforestation","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-died","tag-diogo","tag-dj","tag-election","tag-environment","tag-factory","tag-families","tag-fear","tag-feel","tag-flood","tag-florida","tag-flu","tag-french","tag-government","tag-gravest","tag-hunger","tag-international","tag-jair-bolsonaro","tag-journalist","tag-justice","tag-killed","tag-lead","tag-lies","tag-lost","tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-millions","tag-misguided","tag-movement","tag-north","tag-one","tag-outbreak","tag-pandemic","tag-phone","tag-poverty","tag-president","tag-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-presidential","tag-priority","tag-prison","tag-rain","tag-rap","tag-rebuild","tag-sao-paulo","tag-souza","tag-speech","tag-spring","tag-teixeira","tag-terror","tag-tragedy","tag-union","tag-unity","tag-us","tag-vaccination","tag-war","tag-woman","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50867,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28896\/revisions\/50867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}