Rio de Janeiro: Lula da Silva was sworn in as the president of Brazil. This is Lula’s third term as president. The 35-member cabinet was also announced by the new president. 11 of them are women. Lula is the leader of the left-leaning Workers’ Party.
In her first speech following being sworn in, Lula da Silva declared that her fight would be for the poor and the environment. He also said that he is taking up the protection of the Amazon rainforest. Lula said her eyes filled with people begging in vehicles parked on the street. Lula was upset when she said this.
Meanwhile, right-wing leader and current president Jair Bolsonaro, who did not recognize Lula da Silva’s victory, did not attend the swearing-in ceremony. Bolsonaro and his supporters have not accepted the election results.
In the presidential election, Lula won 50.8 percent of the vote, while Bolsonaro got 49.1 percent. Bolsonaro’s failure to manage the Covid crisis, a weak economy and attacks on democratic institutions have backfired. His popularity has been dented by Amazon deforestation and anti-tribalism.
In Brazil, 50 percent of the vote is required to be elected president. After no one got this in the first phase of voting, the second phase of the election was held with only two candidates who got more votes. In Brazil, Lula, who was president twice from 2003 to 2011, implemented many reforms from a socialist perspective at that time.
Lula was jailed in 2018 for allegedly taking an apartment from a car wash company in the city of Sao Paulo as a bribe. Judge Sergio Moro, who sentenced him to nine years in prison, was later made Minister of Justice in Bolsonaro’s cabinet. Lula was released following 580 days in jail following the Supreme Court observed that a person should be jailed only following the possibility of appeal is over.
If Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1998, Lula in 2006, and Dilma Rousseff in 2014 were elected for a second term, Bolsonaro might not remain in power. Bolsonaro, a hard-right leader who follows the political models of former US President Donald Trump, has been called the ‘Trump of the Tropics’.
