The former president of Brazil Luis Inácio Lula da Silva expressed this Friday his support for Gustavo Petro’s candidacy in the Colombian presidential elections that will take place this Sunday, May 29.
Lula, who seeks to defeat Jair Bolsonaro in his country’s presidential elections to be held in October, asked the “people of Colombia” to vote for Petro.
“Those of us who fight to overthrow a fascist government in Brazil, ask the people of Colombia and all those who defend democracy, that next Sunday they vote for the comrade @petrogustavo as president of Colombia,” said the former union leader through a message posted on his Twitter account.
“So that, in October of this year, Colombia, Brazil and other countries in the region can build a strong South America, with political, economic and cultural integration. Petro is the certainty that Colombia will be democratic following the elections”, emphasized Lula, who seeks to return to the position he held between 2003 and 2010.
Minutes later, Petro thanked Lula for his message, whom he called “the future president of Brazil,” and said he wants the two to help build a “united Latin America.”
“Thank you, Lula, future president of Brazil, for your support. Hopefully we can build a Latin America united in production, social justice and knowledge”, wrote the candidate of the Historical Pact.
Despite Lula’s support, in recent days the former Brazilian president criticized Petro’s proposal to stop oil exploration in Colombia.
In an interview with the magazine Timethe leader of the Brazilian left referred to an interview with Petro in the middle Bloomberg in which he proposed to Latin America an alliance under “decarbonized economies”, and extended a direct invitation to Lula, who is the leader in the polls in Brazil.
Lula, with the powerful Petrobras in mind, declined the invitation and described the former mayor of Bogotá’s proposal as “unreal”. “Petro has the right to propose whatever he wants. In the case of Brazil, this is not real. In the case of the world this is unreal”, said Lula.
When asked if he would stop the exploration of new oil deposits in Brazil while extracting in those already located, the answer was forceful.
“No, as long as you don’t have alternative energy, you should continue to use the energy you have”, said.
Lula recovers ground and would win with a great difference to Bolsonaro, according to survey
Lula da Silva recovered the lost advantage once morest current president Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the October elections in that country, according to a survey published last Thursday.
Lula, 76, leads the race for the Planalto Palace with 48% of voting intentions, followed by the far-right president with 27%, from the survey of the consultancy Datafolha published by the newspaper ‘Folha’ of São Paulo.
Although it is not directly comparable to the previous poll in March, in which scenarios with other candidates were projected, Lula extended his advantage to 21 points in the first round of October 2 once morest Bolsonaro.
In March, the difference was 17 points, following Bolsonaro cut distances in relation to the December poll, in which Lula also appeared with 48% voting intention.
This Thursday’s poll included a scenario with the valid votes – without the blanks or the null ones – and revealed that the former president, in that case, would win in the first round, with 54% of the votes compared to 30% for Bolsonaro.
Although Lula leads the polls comfortably, especially since he was released from prison following being convicted of corruption, his campaign avoids falling into triumphalism.
