RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At 76, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party – PT) will marry sociologist Rosângela Silva, 55, on May 18 in a ceremony surrounded by secrecy in São Paulo. Although the couple wants to detach the political character, Lula da Silva and Rosângela Silva’s engagement is used to showing the “loving” and “family” sides of the PT as a counterpoint to his opponents, especially President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who will seek reelection.
Lula da Silva himself mixed the wedding with the campaign in several moments. On May 17, he published a video on Twitter saying he would commit to Janja, just as he wants to commit to Brazil.
“Lula [da Silva] is staying with Janja. No, Lula [da Silva] is not staying; he marries and takes responsibility as I want to take responsibility with Brazil,” da Silva says in the publication. In an amalgamation of cuts from several videos, Lula says seven times that he is in love. “This country needs love; this country needs affection,” he says.
The marriage ended up suspending the pre-campaign for a week.
The former president has made several references to his fiancée and talked about love in speeches, interviews, and on social networks in recent months.
“Anger doesn’t solve anyone’s problem. What solves it is love. That’s why I, at 76, am not angry. I’m in love, and I’m getting married to show my confidence in the future of this country,” wrote da Silva on May 9.
“A guy who is 76 years old and in love like I am, who wants to get married, can only do good for this country,” Lula da Silva said. The pre-campaign motto video, called “Two Sides,” also shown at the event, shows the dichotomy between love and hate.
The female electorate seems to prefer the alleged poll leader. The construction of a candidate linked to positive feelings and the family is one of the strategies to win votes.
WEDDING DETAILS
The couple tried to keep total discretion about the wedding, but, with the pre-campaign suspended this week and the interest in the ceremony, details of the engagement ended up being divulged.
The union will be celebrated in São Paulo at 7 PM, but there is still no certainty about the place. The about 200 guests received the invitations with a QR Code. They will be informed about the venue hours before the ceremony.
According to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, the blessing will be given by Dom Angélico Sândalo Bernardino, who has known Lula da Silva since the 1970s.
According to a report from Metrópoles, the party will be held at Grupo Bisutti, located in Vila Olímpia, a noble neighborhood in the south zone of São Paulo City. However, the company has other addresses in the capital.
A special security scheme will be set up in front of the venue.
LULA DA SILVA’S SOON TO BE WIFE
With a degree in Sociology from the Federal University of Paraná, Rosângela Silva joined PT in 1983 and has known Lula da Silva for years.
They began their relationship in late 2017, but only in May 2019 did they make it public. At the time, Lula was in prison in Curitiba.
When he left jail on November 8, 2019, Lula da Silva announced that he would marry Rosângela Silva. Since then, they have lived together in São Bernardo, the metropolitan region of São Paulo City, where Lula forged his political career.
PREVIOUS MARRIAGES
It is Lula da Silva’s third marriage. He was married to Maria de Lourdes da Silva from 1969 to 1971. She died of hepatitis while pregnant with a boy who also died. In depression because of the tragedy, he joined the labor movement. During this period, da Silva dated nursing assistant Mirian Cardoso, with whom he had a daughter, Lurian Cordeiro Lula da Silva.
In 1974, he met Marisa Letícia in the Metalworkers Union. She helped found the Workers’ Party (PT) and is remembered for having sewn the party’s first flag in 1980. They were married for 43 years until Marisa died in February 2017 from a stroke. He had three sons with her: Fábio, Sandro, and Luiz Cláudio.
Marisa’s performance as the First Lady during Lula’s two terms as President of the Republic, from 2003 to 2010, is remembered as discreet and even not very active, unlike her union life. At the Alvorada Palace, the official residence of the president of the Republic, she had a flower bed planted with red flowers in the shape of a star, the symbol of the PT.
ROSÂNGELA SILVA’S PERFORMANCE
Longtime allies of the PT claim that Rosângela Silva has a different style. She has indicated she may work in the food security area in an eventual new government of the PT candidate. She spoke at an event on the cost of living with women in Brasilândia, a poor region of the São Paulo capital, on April 30.
“If I can contribute with something in this campaign, in this government, which God willing, everything will work out; it will be precisely on the issue of food security for women. I have worked with social responsibility projects all my life,” she said.
Since 2019, she has attended practically all of Lula da Silva’s public engagements. Her actions have intensified since the PT member indicated that he might run again for the Presidency of the Republic. The PT even included the sociologist in party propaganda aired in March.
However, the way she participates has bothered some of the PT’s allies. Besides public events, she has also been going to closed party meetings, giving her opinion in the discussions.
On at least two occasions, she has shown displeasure with the turmoil around Lula da Silva – the mess of supporters surrounding Lula in public appearances is one of the hallmarks of the ex-president’s way of doing politics.
“I managed to get a girlfriend in jail, and she even agreed to marry me,” said the former president upon leaving prison in November 2019.