Brazil’s ex-health minister Mandetta eyes 2022 presidential election, positions himself as peace bringer

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Physician and ex-Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta, a former federal deputy for the Democratas (DEM) party, confirmed that he is prepared to run for president of Brazil in 2022, along what he calls a “third path” against the polarization between President Jair Bolsonaro and ex-president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who regained his political rights last week.

For Mandetta, the country can no longer endure this polarization. “The country has already experienced these two models and they were very conflicting and they cause more problems than solutions,” he said in an exclusive interview with OVALE, a regional news service in São José dos Campos, São Paulo.

How do you see the return of ex-president Lula to the political scene?

Brazil has been experiencing this polarization for a decade. Lula and Bolsonaro are the same crisis, but with an opposite sign. It is preferable that this happens now [Lula’s regained eligibility] than a few months before the election. It will give time for these two extremes to reveal their faces and for the population to see that they will lose with these two extremes. There will be more violence, confusion, and the country can’t take it anymore. More than ever the third path will need to emerge.

Are Lula and Bolsonaro similar?

The country has already tried these two models; they were very conflicting and created more problems than solutions. People don’t care if they are right-wing, left-wing or center. They want someone capable of uniting and pacifying the country, to tackle our serious crises, in health, education, culture, the environment, and employment. We need to build a progressive country that attracts the world with security, health, and quality of life.

Where will this third path emerge?

It will emerge from the people, from the base, from the clamor of the people. There is an echo in society for this. Citizens who do not want to get caught up in this collective hysteria, which must be defended blindly and which is gradually becoming more radical. Citizens who are willing to work and study, they know that this path of fighting is useless. We have fights within families and among friends who distance themselves because of this stupid politics of polarization in the country.

Could you be this third path in the 2022 elections?

I will be part of this third path, because I don’t see myself either in the A or B camp. Now, who will be the name to lead this process? If they believe that my name is the one to conduct this, let’s go, let’s see, help, and negotiate. Let’s build, let’s talk, let’s open our hearts. If it is someone else, whatever is needed from me I will do it, like handing out leaflets at Viaduto do Chá [in São Paulo] and campaigning. I want to believe in what is best for the country. When I was in college during the Diretas Já campaign, we thought that if we voted for president all our problems would be solved. And I did this with a sparkle in my eyes, handing out leaflets on the college corner. I was a member of the student council. I want that same politics, the same feeling I had when I was 20. I want it there for me to believe in. The other path is to leave Brazil, to give up on Brazil and do as thousands of young people are doing. But we can’t leave. We must fight here.

Didn’t the Bolsonaro government prepare to fight the pandemic in the country?

We had three pillars we wanted to follow: protection of life, defense of the SUS (National Health System), and decisions based on science. The first was prevention, and the president made a point of boycotting prevention. The second was attention, care. While we were saying that it was a virus and that it needed to have its cycle determined, and that there was no medication, he took a drug [chloroquine] and said that everyone should take it because there was no problem. He created a false medication and boycotted the care aspect. And we had the testing route to separate positive cases. He ordered the Ministry of Health not to test anymore and changed the whole team, and appointed a military officer in charge. This was boycotted to the point that tests lost their expiration date. On the vaccine front, on the science front, we should have bought the vaccines in August and September. We should have bought from several laboratories. We needed a mix of vaccines. So, he boycotts this and backs the anti-vaccine movement. The president has not cooperated on any of the pillars. The numbers are here. We are going to reach 3,000 daily deaths in the country.

Source: Ovale news service