Brazil’s new president is inaugurated
Lula takes the oath of office, coverage by CNN Portugal
Luis Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president of Brazil on Sunday, January 1st. For many Brazilians and observers across the globe it was time for a collective sigh of relief as the shambolic regime of Jair Bolsonaro, the outgoing far-right president, came to an end. The event took place amid tight security after weeks of protests by Bolsonaro’s supporters where they camped outside military facilities in various cities across the country, demanding, pleading and sometimes praying loudly on bended knees for intervention to keep Bolsonaro in office after a tight election result that they claimed, without evidence, had been stolen.
Jair Bolsonaro is a former Army captain who served for two decades in the national congress without accomplishing much but excelled as a provocateur on television. He made misogynistic pronouncements over the years, infamously deriding a congresswoman who called out his offensive statements by saying she “didn’t deserve to be raped.” He also spoke repeatedly in favor of the military dictatorship of 1964 to 1985, and said he was highly in favor of torture. Bolsonaro swept into office in 2016 to the surprise of just about everyone, largely as a result of his supporters harnessing social media to a degree never before seen.
Passionate groups of Bolsonarists regard Lula as a criminal who wants to take the country down the road to Venezuelan style communism. Lula served two terms as president from 2003 to 2011; unlike the US Brazil allows presidents to serve more than two terms in office but they cannot be consecutive. He was the most popular president in history but was caught up in the Lava Jato (car wash) scandal and was paying the equivalent of a monthly bribe called a mensalão to legislators who supported his initiatives. Lula spent nearly two years in prison for accepting kickbacks on real estate, and he was released on a technicality.
In the hours and days after the runoff election on October 30, 2022, truck drivers and others blocked highways in multiple locations across Brazil. In a country where all goods are transported by truck, this had the capacity to paralyze the country. And it did, for a couple of days, until judicial action forced the blockaders to desist. Investigations in the coming months will reveal to what degree the federal highway police and others failed to enforce the laws, or even encouraged the actions. Just days before the scheduled transfer of power, Bolsonaro supporters set fire to several vehicles including buses in Brasília. Far right adherents of Bolsonaro claimed on social media that the fires were set by “the left.”
Bolsonaro grudgingly allowed his chief of staff to cooperate in the presidential transition, but he never admitted that he had lost the election. He remained holed up in the presidential palace and had no interaction with the press, appearing once a few weeks ago at a military ceremony where he was obviously in tears. After a supporter was arrested for planting a bomb in a vehicle at the airport Bolsonaro made a statement condemning violence. Two days before the inauguration, Bolsonaro appeared in a video on his social media channel and told his supporters he knew they were disappointed, but that they should imagine how disappointed he was, having “given his life for his country.” Without officially announcing his plans, Bolsonaro, his wife and several advisers then flew to Orlando, Florida on a Brazilian Air Force jet, where he is said to be staying at the home of a mixed martial arts fighter. His departure meant that he would not pass the presidential sash to Lula, the first time this has occurred since the end of the military-civilian dictatorship in the 1980s.
January first was a bright, clear day and the ceremonies began with Lula taking the oath of office at the supreme judicial court and making a brief statement of his policy intentions. He signed a number of copies of the presidential documents, noting that in his previous two terms of office he had used government pens, but this time he used a pen that had been given to him during his first unsuccessful run for the presidency, by a person in the Northeastern state of Piauí, and he dedicated his signing to the people of that state.
“12 years later Lula returns to the presidency”
Lula and his wife, Rosangela, known as Janja, vice president Alckmin and his wife were transported in an open Rolls Royce to deliver the inaugural address to the people at the presidential offices. The 1952 Rolls Royce convertible was first used for the inauguration of President Juscelino Kubitschek in 1956. Kubitschek, or JK as he was known, was the visionary who led the nation to construct the new capital Brasília, completing it in 1960 before leaving office. While there were security concerns about the new president using an open car, the motorcade was an impressive sight, with the security detail running alongside wearing suits, white shirts and ties—men in black.
Lula walking up the ramp to the presidential offices
President-elect Lula walked up the ramp to the presidential offices with a diverse group of Brazilians, his wife, the vice president and his wife. Representing the Brazilian people were a 10-year-old boy, a factory worker, a disabled man and Raoni Metuktire, a chief of the indigenous Kayapo people and environmentalist. And Bolsonaro’s snub in not attending the ceremony allowed the symbolic passing of the presidential sash to be accomplished on behalf of the people, with Aline Sousa, a Black woman who works as a garbage collector, placing the sash on Lula.
“Lula receives the sash from the hands of the people”
Lula announced several broad policy initiatives, including revoking the many decrees expanding gun ownership that Bolsonaro had signed without legislative action, resulting in a 600% increase in firearms in the country during his tenure. Lula said, “Brazil needs books, not guns.”
Lula noted that he had inherited a dismal economic situation and vowed to improve things. He suggested people see what the markets said on Monday. Unfortunately, the markets were not happy with Lula’s appointment of Fernando Haddad as finance minister, extension of the moratorium on gas taxes and more funding for aid to the poor. These were Lula’s campaign promises and making good on them required raising the debt ceiling. Lula said Brazil is in a time of economic and moral crisis after Bolsonaro.
Lula pledged to fight all forms of inequality, and to combat poverty and hunger, which increased dramatically during Bolsonaro’s term. Lula also committed to promoting investment in health and education.
Lula hearkened back to the phrase used at the end of the military-civilian dictatorship, and the title of an exhaustive report on torture and murders during the 1964 to 1985 military rule, Brasil: Nunca Mais, Brazil Never Again. He said, “under the winds of redemocratization we used to say, “dictatorship never again. Today, after the terrible challenge we have overcome, we must say, ‘democracy forever.’ I should note that Brasil: Nunca Mais was a prime source for my research on The Moon Is Backwards and the Portuguese version of the novel, a lua ao avesso.
Red-clad supporters of Lula at the presidential offices for the inauguration
Brazil accomplished the peaceful transfer of power with minimal outbreaks of violence. Now Lula faces daunting challenges with cobbled-together alliances in the legislature, worsening inflation and devaluation of the real, and an urgent need to stop deforestation of the Amazon and protect indigenous lands. The anger on the part of Bolsonarists at what they regard as a fraudulent, stolen election is still simmering just below the surface. But for one sunny day in Brasília there was peace, unity and hope among the red-clad supporters of the new president, as they reclaimed both the flag and the colors yellow and green for the country as a whole.