Lula, one year later – El Clarin de Chile

Approximate reading time: 1 minute, 37 seconds

Lula began this 2024 with one eye on last Monday, the first day of the second year of his third presidential term, and the other on tomorrow, when it also marks one year since the attempted coup d’état articulated by the unbalanced far-right Jair Bolsonaro and his gang, with the clear objective of reinstalling himself in power after having been defeated in the elections held in October 2022. He has been, incidentally, the first president who failed to be reelected.

There is at least one good news for Lula’s joy: last year Brazil achieved an unprecedented fiscal surplus. Between what the country exported and imported, there was a positive balance of almost 100 billion dollars. The official number released last Friday was 98.8 billion, the highest in the last 34 years, when the balance began to be measured.

But like everything in life – or almost everything –, there is also the other side of the coin. And Lula is very clear that this will be a difficult year with already announced storms.

Congress, especially the Chamber of Deputies, will maintain its ostensible imposition of obstacles to the projects of the Executive Branch.

Composed of its vast majority by politicians who oscillate between the right and the extreme right, including followers of absolute loyalty to Bolsonaro, the Chamber knows how to put a price on each vote. And such a price, which translates into budget “amendments,” only goes up.

Another point of concern, and in some cases of pure tension, is in the municipal elections that will be held in October.

Even though Bolsonaro is out of the game – it is worth reiterating that he was declared “ineligible” until 2030 by the Superior Electoral Court – his weight as a vote-getter for followers remains strong. And the feeling is palpable that a substantial part of the more than 5 thousand Brazilian municipalities choose to elect followers of the unbalanced far-right, creating a difficult scenario for Lula and his government.

Another focus of concern refers precisely to the coup attempt on January 8 of last year. Of the more than 2,000 people arrested on that occasion, 66 are still imprisoned and one of them was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The investigations continue, and more and more quite palpable indications of the direct participation of both the police and the Armed Forces are emerging.

There is already consensus which indicates that the coup was not carried out for a single reason: no military commander agreed to lead the movement. The mutual distrust between the uniformed men and Lula is the subject of increasingly intense negotiations, but so far insufficient to ultimately eliminate the dark clouds that cast a shadow over the scene.

If there are reasons for Lula’s joy at the beginning of the year, there are plenty of reasons for his visible concern.

By Eric Nepomuceno

Source: La Jornada