Monday 31 10 2022
By Al Mayadeen English
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns to Brazil’s highest office in an incredible political comeback.
Brazilian President-elect Lula da Silva assures that his country has returned to the international arena and will no longer be a “pariah”.
Lula won Brazil’s presidential elections, urging “peace and unity” after defeating far-right Jair Bolsonaro in a contentious runoff election on Sunday. Bolsonaro has not yet conceded loss, but leftist da Silva has concluded a historic political comeback.
The victory represents a stunning turnaround for leftist icon Lula, who returned for an unprecedented third term at 77 after leaving office in 2010 as the most popular President in Brazilian history.
“This country needs peace and unity,” Lula said to loud cheers in a victory speech in Sao Paulo.
Read next: Lula Da Silva leads in polls ahead of Sunday runoff in Brazil
“The challenge is immense,” he said of the job ahead of him, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, bitter political division, and deforestation in the Amazon.
Later, in front of a crammed audience of hundreds of thousands of supporters wearing red Workers’ Party clothing, he declared, “Democracy is back.”
Bolsonaro’s overwhelming silence
Bolsonaro, 67, was silent in the hours after the result was declared.
After months of claiming — without providing any evidence — that Brazil’s electronic voting system is plagued by fraud and that the courts, media, and other institutions had conspired against his far-right movement, all eyes will now be on how Bolsonaro and his supporters will respond to the outcome.
“Anywhere in the world, the losing president would already have called to admit defeat. He hasn’t called yet, I don’t know if he will call and concede,” Lula told the massive crowd.
Read next: Brazilians vote with Lula leading the polls against Bolsonaro
Electoral officials proclaimed Lula the winner with 50.9% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1%.
The virulent hardline conservative known as “Tropical Trump,” Bolsonaro, lost the election.
While Bolsonaro remained silent, several of his most important allies publicly endorsed the results. Arthur Lira, the speaker of the lower house of Congress, said it was time to “extend a hand to our adversaries, debate, and build bridges.”
Read next: Lula ‘threatens US interests’, Bolsonaro pleading to Biden for ‘help’
‘Restore peace’
Lula supporters around the country began celebrations Sunday evening.
“We’ve had four years of a genocidal, hateful government,” said Lula voter Maria Clara, a 26-year-old student, at a victory party in downtown Rio.
“Today democracy won, and the possibility of dreaming of a better country again.”
‘Biggest comeback’
Lula discussed racial and gender equality in his victory speech, as well as the pressing need to address the food crisis afflicting 33.1 million Brazilians.
“Today we tell the world that Brazil is back,” he said, adding that the country is “ready to reclaim its place in the fight against the climate crisis, especially the Amazon.”
He vowed to “fight for zero deforestation.”
Lula’s win is “one of the biggest comebacks in modern political history,” tweeted Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarter.
Brazil: Bolsonaro’s Wife Wears Israeli Flag While Casting Vote
Brazil’s First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro showed up at the polling station to vote in the country’s presidential elections wearing a T-shirt depicting an Israeli flag, Israeli media reported.
Her husband, current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, is facing left-wing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Times of Israel reported that “Bolsonaro, who enjoys the support of the country’s millions of evangelical Christians, pledged to move Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem, but in the end opened a trade and investment office in the capital.”
“At a time when Brazilians vote in one of their most consequential elections in recent history, Bolsonaro shows that his priorities do not lie in the interests of the Brazilian people but in a foreign power,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud said.
“While this phenomenon is not confined to Brazil, as it is also the norm in American elections, it is particularly tragic in the case of Brazil, as the country faces immense socio-economic and political challenges that require true loyalty to the nation, not to Israel,” Baroud added.
Filed under: "Israel", South America | Tagged: Bolsonaro, Brazil, Brazilian President Lula da Silva |
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 