BRASILIA, Brazil — Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is about to be inaugurated Sunday for a 3rd time period as Brazil’s president, in a ceremony snubbed by outgoing chief Jair Bolsonaro, underlining the deep divisions the veteran leftist inherits.
The swearing-in will cap a outstanding political comeback for 77-year-old Lula, who returns to the presidential palace lower than 5 years after being jailed on controversial, since-quashed corruption prices.
In an indication of the scars that stay from Lula’s brutal election showdown with far-right ex-army captain Bolsonaro in October, safety will likely be exceptionally tight on the pomp-filled ceremony in Brasilia.
Some 8,000 police have been deployed, after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested final week for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives close to the capital’s airport, a plot he stated aimed to “sow chaos” within the South American nation.
Bolsonaro himself left Brazil for the US state of Florida Friday—reportedly to keep away from having handy the presidential sash to his bitter enemy, as custom dictates.
The snub has hardly dampened the celebration spirit for Lula and the 300,000 folks anticipated on the New Year’s Day ceremony and a large celebration live performance that may characteristic acts starting from samba legend Martinho da Vila to pull queen Pabllo Vittar.
Thousands of Lula supporters from across the nation fashioned huge traces to filter via the safety cordon, belting out pro-Lula chants as they waited.
“I’m excited beyond measure,” retired trainer Zenia Maria Soares Pinto, 71, advised AFP after touring 30 hours by bus from the southern state of Santa Catarina.
“I have so much admiration for his humility, his commitment to ensuring the people live in dignity,” added Pinto, a part of a crowd cheering for Lula exterior the lodge the place the ex-metalworker turned president was staying.
Machine operator Valter Gildo, 46, known as it a “historic day.”
“Today marks the return of a working man to the presidential palace, someone who fights for social causes, for minorities, against racism and homophobia, a person who represents Brazil,” he stated.
Foreign dignitaries together with 19 heads of state will likely be in attendance as Lula, who beforehand led Brazil via a watershed increase from 2003 to 2010, takes the oath of workplace for a brand new four-year time period at 3:00 pm (1800 GMT).
They embody the presidents of a raft of Latin American international locations, Germany, Portugal and the king of Spain.
After being sworn in earlier than Congress, Lula will journey by automotive—historically a black convertible Rolls Royce, although officers stated that might be modified for safety causes—to the ultra-modern capital’s presidential palace, the Planalto.
There, he’ll stroll up a ramp to the doorway and obtain the goldand diamond-embroidered presidential sash.
Organizers of the ceremony—led by first lady-to-be Rosangela “Janja” da Silva—have stored secret who will give Lula the sash in Bolsonaro’s absence.
It would be the first time for the reason that finish of Brazil’s 1965-1985 army dictatorship that an incoming president doesn’t obtain the yellow-and-green sash from his predecessor.
Pressing to-do listing
Lula faces quite a few pressing challenges for Latin America’s greatest financial system, which seems little just like the commodities-fueled dynamo he led within the 2000s.
They embody rebooting financial progress, curbing rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest and delivering on his bold agenda to combat poverty and inequality.
Vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin described the incoming administration’s job as “herculean.”
Markets are in the meantime watching nervously how Lula will fund his promised social spending, given Brazil’s overstretched authorities funds.
Lula will face a Congress dominated by Bolsonaro’s conservative allies.
In an indication of how polarized the nation stays, far-right hardliners have been protesting exterior military bases ever since Lula’s slender runoff win on October 30, calling for a army intervention to maintain him from taking energy.
The new president should act “assertively” in his first 100 days to point out the place “Lula Part Three” is headed, stated political scientist Leandro Consentino.
“His election win was very tight, and he’ll face a divided country and a combative opposition. He’ll have to lead a national unity government and restore the peace,” he stated. — AFP
