• Brazil Maduro will be at the inauguration of Lula after revoking Bolsonaro's ban on entering the country

The vision of the Esplanade of the Ministries, a sea of ​​people and red symbols, could have made Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva think that the challenge of uniting Brazil is not so complex.

But on a Sunday of oppressive heat, euphoria and tension in Brasilia, the man who arrives for the third time at the Planalto Palace is very clear that

the challenge is as inescapable as it is difficult.

Lula, 77 years old, returns to the Presidency 12 years after leaving office.

In between, his party, the Workers' Party (PT), suffered an

impeachment

that ousted

Dilma Rousseff

from power, Lula himself spent 581 days in jail for corruption, and the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro ruled for four years leading the country to a paroxysm of tension and confrontation.

That is why the image of this Sunday, January 1, of

Lula aboard a convertible Rolls Royce, heading to Congress

to be sworn in and to the Planalto Palace to assume power, moved the followers of the leftist leader: a little more one year was pure science fiction.

Aboard the car was Alckmin with his third wife, Janja, but also

Geraldo Alckmin

, the new vice president, and his wife.

Alckmin, a conservative who was Lula's rival in the runoff for the Presidency in 2006. The image gave a clear idea of ​​the breadth of collation that Lula needed to defeat Bolsonaro by the minimum who fled the country two days before end his government and settled in Orlando, the city of the Disney theme park.

Tata was the tension in the final stretch towards January 1, which Bolsonaro's own vice president,

Hamilton Mourao

, criticized on Saturday night, in an unexpected speech on national television, who is now a former president.

As Lula took office,

Bolsonaro greeted supporters in Orlando wearing a Sport Club de Recife jersey.

"Leaders who should reassure and unite the nation around a country project, allowed their silence or inopportune and deleterious role to create a climate of chaos and social disintegration and, irresponsibly, allowed the Armed Forces, of all Brazilians, will pay the bill:

for some, due to inaction, and, for others, for fomenting an alleged coup

", said a Mourao presented as "Acting President of the Republic".

According to "O Globo",

Lula "intends to reinforce the need for Brazilian society to overcome the hatred

that has marked political discussions as a way of preserving democracy. The petista will face the challenge of governing a divided nation, under the shadow of a right-wing reinforced by Bolsonarismo".

"Bolsonaro sought the limits, he tried to govern without counterweights, without Parliament, without justice. He tried, but could not. Although there were times when he was not far from achieving several of his objectives," a man who participated in the day assured EL MUNDO to day of that struggle of key Brazilian institutions -especially Justice- to curb the authoritarian impulses of the retired Army captain.

Beyond Bolsonaro's blunders, Lula also has the challenge of correcting his own history: he must get rid of the enormous stain of corruption that turned Brazilian politics into hell

after the Lava Jato scandal

and other annexes.

A hell that ended with Lula spending 581 days in jail.

He was released from prison thanks to a Supreme Court decision, which did not rule on the innocence of the left-wing leader, but simply the incompetence of the court that sentenced him.

The "Luladrao" ("Lula, thief") remains the order of the day for the majority of those who did not vote for him in the closest election since the return of democracy to Brazil, in 1985:

Lula won by 50.9 to 49.1%

.

If his government were to descend into corruption again, the damage to his party and the political system would be enormous.

The economic challenge is clear, and in a certain way paradoxical: sectors of the new government accuse Bolsonaro of having strayed from orthodoxy in recent months and leaving them a spending mortgage.

The left questions the right for spending too much money, although it has already managed to get rid of the spending ceiling that had constitutional rank since the Presidency of Michel Temer: thus,

Lula obtained some 30,000 million euros

that will allow him to sustain and reinforce assistance programs in a country where hunger is a reality for 33 million people.

Lula also intends to

recover the international presence of Brazil

, greatly diminished in the Bolsonaro years.

He has the support of the United States, Europe, China and the enthusiasm of the main countries of Latin America.

His first trip abroad, on the 24th of this month, will be to Argentina, with a triple mission: to relaunch the relationship with that country, reactivate Mercosur and return to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

Security measures were very strict today in a city that experienced, three weeks ago, serious riots generated by extreme Bolsonarists.

The fear was that some of the people who gathered in front of the Army Headquarters would move to the center of the city and a confrontation would break out between supporters and opponents of the new government.

It did not happen,

the party was total

, on a Sunday that will close with a gigantic recital a few meters from the Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Rodrigo Pacheco, president of the Senate, summoned the entire Congress

to a minute of silence in memory of former soccer player Pelé

, who died on Thursday at the age of 82.

The silence, absolute, was shocking.

After the Brazilian anthem was sung, the ceremony began and Lula was immediately sworn in: it was 3:05 p.m. (7:05 p.m. in Spain) and Lula, for the third time, became president of Brazil.

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