With just less than a year to go until Brazil’s general elections, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appears to have found the tone he will adopt as the front-running candidate. Gone will be the former political prisoner, soured by the path the country has taken during the absence of his center-left Workers’ Party from power, and in his place will be “Peace and Love Lula” — the persona that won him his first presidential election back in 2002.
The former president is betting his chips on this more moderate iteration of himself, in the hope of winning over sectors of the country that he believes will be crucial to winning next year’s vote: economic elites and the mainstream media.
Leading opinion polls by some distance, Lula is already firmly on the campaign trail with a packed schedule of events. In recent weeks, he has taken part in meetings with political leaders and figures from social society, claiming he has “spoken to all political forces who are willing to talk.”
On Friday, Lula spoke to journalists at a convention center in the capital city of Brasília and sought to do everything possible to make his guests feel welcome. He cracked jokes and kept his cool even when asked about issues that would usually elicit heated responses, such as his mentions of proposals to regulate the Brazilian media.
Even when quizzed on one of the matters dearests to his heart in recent years — his imprisonment and the subsequent quashing of his convictions as part of Operation Car Wash — Lula remained calm. He criticized former judge Sérgio Moro and members of the Car Was task force, but stressed that he wants to “move on.”
After blaming the Bolsonaro government for rising inflation and oil prices set by Petrobras, Lula gestured toward financial markets. He claimed to already “have a name in mind” to be his Economy Minister, but said he would set up “a pool of journalists, business owners, intellectuals, black people, and whoever wants to take part” to discuss the country’s...
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