Lula da Silva says São Paulo Forum was created to moderate the left

On Monday, October 17, the Workers’ Party’s (PT, left) candidate for the Presidential Palace, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he articulated the São Paulo Forum to moderate the Latin American left.

The São Paulo Forum is an organization that brings together left-wing political parties created in 1990. The initial articulation was by the PT.

Lula da Silva’s main opponent in this year’s elections, President Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party – PL, right), often cites the organization to link the PT to authoritarian leftist regimes in Latin America. He did this in the debate on Sunday, October 16.

On Monday, da Silva said many revolutionary groups exist in Latin America.

“I made a point of calling everyone here to say to the guys, ‘oh, man, we can get there through the vote; we can organize ourselves and believe in the people that we can get there through the vote.’ And obviously, everyone arrived”, said the PT candidate.

According to Lula da Silva, the 1989 election, when he was defeated in the runoff by Fernando Collor, showed that a worker can come to power through the vote.

“In 1985, I had made a statement that I didn’t believe that a worker could reach the Presidency of the Republic through the vote. I said that those at the top would never let us get there,” he said.

“When it was 1989, I came so close, I went to the runoff, and we came so close to winning the election that I discovered that it was possible, yes, it was possible,” said the PT candidate.

“It was possible for us to win by voting without having to shoot or wage war. We had to organize the people a little bit, and we would make it,” declared da Silva.

The PT candidate made the statement during an event in São Paulo with nuns, friars, and Catholic priests who support him. He seeks to make nods to the religious public.

In addition, Lula da Silva’s party has historical relations with sectors of the Catholic Church. Religious people linked to liberation theology, a movement that mixed the Catholic faith with left-wing political ideology, helped found the PT.

That is the origin, for example, of Gilberto Carvalho, one of the prominent members of da Silva’s presidential campaign. He took care of the candidate’s schedule and participated in the activity.

Lula da Silva’s vice presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and the PT’s candidate for governor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, also participated.

The former mayor of São Paulo also made nods to the religious public. “When I see Brazilians assaulting another religion, it hurts my soul,” he said.

“Transforming religious intolerance into state policy is something my family surely never imagined they would see in Brazil,” declared Haddad, a descendant of Lebanese immigrants.

The PT candidate for the São Paulo state government is running against Bolsonaro’s Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas (Republicans), who finished the first round ahead.

With information from Poder360