Now Free, Lula Sparks Hope of Reviving Feeble Opposition

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – It was not yet 1 PM, the time when the Federal Court of Curitiba would start the day’s work, and the lawyers of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already filed an electronic petition for his immediate release.

The argument was clear: the decision, taken the day before by the Federal Supreme Court, that only those convicted after all appeals had been exhausted could be imprisoned, directly benefited the leftist leader. “It is imperative that the Supreme Court’s decision be immediately enforced,” they stressed.

Outside the Federal Police penitentiary, where since April 7th, 2018 Lula had been serving his sentence while his appeals are pending, a crowd had already been gathering since early in the day. Hundreds of people from different parts of the country, PT and leftist militants – some camped there for 580 days – longed for Lula’s pledge made while in jail, in an interview to El País and Folha in April.

He said he would walk to the vigil that had greeted him daily since he was arrested and take a shot of ‘cachaça’ with his faithful supporters to celebrate.

Next to a stage set up right there on the street for the leftist’s first speech, the crowd was already organized. Sitting on plastic chairs, 43-year-old bank clerk Sandra Goes and 58-year-old supermarket employee Lenir Riva had been waiting on the front row for more than two hours for Lula to join them.

Lenir wanted a selfie and was already planning a way to get closer to the ex-president. “Can I jump over that fence?” she jokingly pointed to the partition that isolated the stage. Sandra really intended to listen to the speech. “I really want to hear him. We need his presence, what he has to say to the militancy about what we should do in this country to keep hope alive at a time like this,” she explained.

Lula’s release from the prison he entered six months before the election that brought the ultra-right Jair Bolsonaro to power, represented for his supporters not only the physical presence of a leader, but the expectation of a trajectory for a party and for a left-wing that in recent years has failed to forge strong leaders capable of renewal, and that less than a year until the municipal elections could not clearly point to its candidates for the most important municipal governments in Brazil, that of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

PT had seen, in a short time, Bolsonaro grow strong, using a radical right-wing discourse, finding support in the streets and on social media formerly seen only among Lulism itself. It was there, represented in the form of a free Lula, the hope of an organization that the ex-president tried to preserve from prison through written messages and the strategic visits that he received. It was from there that he decided, for instance, when to withdraw from running for office – although it had long been clear that his second-instance conviction would prevent him from doing so.

It was also from there that he decided that Fernando Haddad would be his replacement and from there he outlined a thorough campaign strategy that was almost victorious – Haddad lost to Bolsonaro in the second round, but the PT managed to elect the largest bench in the Chamber of Deputies in the midst of the conservative wave.

It was also from that building that he drew up his current plan to retake the leadership in the streets of the country again, in head-on opposition to Bolsonaro. After a period with his family, he plans to travel throughout Brazil pn another of his tours.

He intends to reorganize the ranks. And thus begin the 2022 campaign, which, as always, kicks off in the municipal elections two years earlier. Electing mayors is important to choosing viable candidates, something critically required to face PSL that gained political strength and money for the campaign, even though it is in crisis with its main star, President Bolsonaro.

Judge Danilo Pereira Júnior’s decision, of the 12th Federal Court of Curitiba, was made public at 4:15 PM on Friday. He ordered an “interruption of compliance with the custodial sentence”, based on the decision taken the day before by the STF.

Inside the Federal Police building, in the waiting room at the reception, the ex-president’s relatives, such as his daughter Lurian and a grandson, were anxiously waiting for the arrival of the lawyers who would follow the release procedure. Outside, a string of militants from the Landless Movement (MST) opened space for a small corridor, through which a little over an hour later Lula would pass towards the stage, giving way to a suffocating push-and-shove.

Alongside Haddad and the PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann, he climbed on the stage and thanked a huge list of his vigil’s organizers. “It doesn’t matter if it was raining, it doesn’t matter if it was 40 degrees, it doesn’t matter if it was zero degrees. You were the fuel for the democracy I needed,” said the ex-president.

He publicly introduced Rosângela da Silva, his girlfriend, a romance started inside Curitiba’s jail and announced that he is getting married soon. And in his approximately 20 minutes of speaking time, he first attacked Operation Lava Jato and the “rotten side” of the state that “worked and are working to try to criminalize the left-wing, the PT, and Lula”. He targeted the government of his right-wing opponent, whom he accused of “lying through Twitter,” and vowed to fight to “improve the life of Brazilians,” which “[is] disgraceful”.

He also criticized educational policies and the current unemployment rate, signaling the direction of his speech in the coming months. “Tomorrow there is a meeting at the Metalworkers’ Union, and then Brazil’s doors will be open for me to travel around this country again and discuss a solution with our people,” he said, confirming the plans of the new tour and also his presence in São Bernardo do Campo this Saturday, his political cradle in Greater São Paulo where there should be another public event.

He only managed to personally greet some of the militants who followed him closely, since the security system set up by the social movements prevented him from getting closer to the crowd.

After his speech, he stepped down the side of the stage, where one of the vigil’s structures worked, with a kitchen. He embraced and kissed supporters, who cried with emotion.

He received a glass with cachaça produced by the members of the MST. He toasted with militants and took a sip, passing on the glass, which at the end of the frenzy was still lying on a counter, like a trophy.

“Lula embraced everyone. He cried. I said I loved him to his ear,” celebrated 58-year-old leftist Lúcia Fernandes, who had been there since the very day the ex-president was arrested.

Source: El País