Brazil is turning a new page with the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as president of the country, after the disastrous – in many areas such as health and the environment – term of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Lula launched a scathing indictment of his predecessor and promised a radical change of course to rescue a nation plagued by hunger, poverty and racism.
In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s largest country, Lula, a two-term president, insisted that democracy was the real winner of October’s presidential vote, when it ousted Bolsonaro. in the most difficult election in a generation.
Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for the United States on Friday after refusing to concede defeat, has sought to follow Donald Trump’s lead in the US, with unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud that have spawned a violent movement of election deniers.
“Democracy was the big winner in these elections, overcoming the most violent threats to the freedom of voting and the most vile campaign of lies and hate designed to manipulate and embarrass the electorate,” Lula said speaking. to the legislators. The 77-year-old politician, who was in prison during Bolsonaro’s 2019 inauguration on bribery convictions that were later overturned, issued a veiled threat to his predecessor.
“They will be held accountable”
“We bear no spirit of revenge against those who tried to subjugate the nation to their personal and ideological plans, but we will guarantee the rule of law,” Lula said without mentioning Bolsonaro by name. “Those who made mistakes will be held accountable for their mistakes.”
He also accused the previous government of committing “genocide” by failing to respond properly to the Covid-19 virus that has killed more than 680,000 Brazilians. “Those responsible for this genocide must be investigated and must not go unpunished,” he noted. Lula’s plans for the government stand in stark contrast to Bolsonaro’s four years in office, which have been marked by a rollback on environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest, looser gun laws and weaker protections for indigenous peoples and minorities.
Green superpower
Lula said he wants to turn Brazil, one of the world’s top food producers, into a “green superpower.” In his first decisions as a new president, he restored the government’s environmental protection agency Ibama’s authority to fight illegal deforestation, which had been weakened by Bolsonaro, and revoked a measure that encouraged illegal mining on protected indigenous lands.
He also unfroze a billion-dollar Amazon fund funded by Norway and Germany to support sustainability projects, bolstering his commitment to ending Amazon deforestation, which has risen to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro.
The belt
After the inauguration, Lula went to the Planalto Palace with his wife and a diverse group that included chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo tribe, a young black boy, a cook and an invalid. Lula then received the presidential sash – a highly symbolic act in Brazil, which Bolsonaro had repeatedly said he would never do – from Aline Sousa, a black stone collector.
In a speech that followed, he pledged to unite the polarized country and rule for all Brazilians. “There are no two Brazils,” Lula said. “We are one country, one great nation.” He emphasized that he would be fiscally prudent, but made it clear that his main focus would be on ending hunger and reducing inequality. He also said he plans to improve women’s rights and attack racism and the legacy of slavery in Brazil. “This will be the hallmark of our government,” he concluded.
