Brazil: after Berlin, Lula continues in Paris his pre-election campaign for the presidential election
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inaciao Lula da Silva, during a speech at Sciences Po, in Paris, November 16, 2021. © AFP - JULIEN DE ROSA
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on a European tour.
After being received by MEPs and the very likely next German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the icon of the Latin American left has stopped in Paris.
Lula was notably received this Wednesday, November 17 by Emmanuel Macron.
The day before, he had said he was ready to run for the Brazilian presidential election in October 2022.
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Officially, the former metallurgist, twice elected president of Brazil, is not yet a candidate.
But no one doubts that he will show up.
The polls put him in the lead against Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president that Lula keeps attacking as if he was already in the campaign.
“
I am traveling in Europe to speak with governments, businesses, politicians,” he
says.
I tell them that the Brazilians are much better than those who govern them. We are a hardworking, generous people who love the democrat. We are not an ignorant people like those who govern us today. Our people want to keep good relations with Europeans, that is why I am here in Europe.
"
Before officially launching his candidacy in Brazil, Lula is therefore refining his image as a center-left leader abroad.
In his interview with President Emmanuel Macron, he spoke in favor of a renegotiation of the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, once Brazil will have "
become a democracy again
".
And what would he do if Jair Bolsonaro is re-elected?
“
I'm going to cry,
” Lula explains.
►
See also: Brazil: back on the political scene, former President Lula at the top of the polls
In Paris, the leader of the Brazilian left also met on Wednesday afternoon the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, after meeting the day before with Anne Hidalgo, PS mayor of Paris and presidential candidate of April.
He continues his European tour with a final stop this Thursday, November 18 in Spain, for a discussion with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
"
Democratic front against the far right
"
"
I think this is the vision of a leader who returned to the Champions League for international relations after several years in political ostracism due to his imprisonments, his convictions and the coming to power, the extreme right in Brazil
, explains Gaspard Estrada, political scientist at Sciences Po, specialist in Brazil, at the microphone of
Achim Lippold
, of the International service of RFI. "
“
Both in Brazil and internationally,
continues the political scientist,
the idea of former President Lula is to dialogue, including with people from the center-right, even from the right, to mount a democratic front. against the extreme right in Brazil. This is what he has already started to achieve in Brazil by dialoguing with former President Cardoso, with influential figures from his party, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, the PSDB. And obviously he is doing this internationally as well, which naturally strengthens his stature as a potential presidential candidate.
"
►
To listen: Brazil: after the lifting of sentences, "
Lula is the leader of the opposition, capable of beating Bolsonaro
"
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Brazil
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
France
Jair Bolsonaro