Published:
April 1, 2023 17:32 GMT
More than 50 high-level foreign delegations attended the ceremony, including 17 heads of state and government.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed the presidency of Brazil this Sunday in the presence of at least 53 high-level foreign delegations, including 17 heads of state and government, and with a large popular celebration that brought together around 300,000 people.
In his speech to the National Congress, President-elect Lula sent a message of “hope and reconstruction” to his compatriots: “The great edifice of rights, sovereignty and development that this nation has built has been systematically demolished in recent years. We will direct all our efforts to rebuild this edifice,” he said.
Likewise, he spoke of rebuilding a Brazil “for all” and criticized the use of the public machine in elections, alluding to the defeated candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
“If we are here it is thanks to the political awareness of Brazilian society and the democratic front that we have formed. Democracy was the big winnersurpassing the largest mobilization of public and private resources ever; the most violent threats to the freedom to vote”, Lula underlined.
In this context, the new Brazilian leader indicated that “we will respond to hate with love. To the lie, with the truth. We will respond to terror and violence with the law and its harshest consequences”.
Furthermore, he indicated that he has signed today measures to reorganize the structures of the executive so that they “allow once again the Government to function in a rational, republican and democratic way“.
As for economic development, Lula stressed this “Brazil can and must be at the forefront of the world economy”. For what will be a primary mission of the State “to articulate the digital transition and bring Brazilian industry into the 21st century, with an industrial policy that supports innovation, stimulates public-private cooperation and strengthens science”.
Challenges and challenges for the new Government
Lula together with his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, begin a new mandate, in the midst of a rigorous security scheme, after the recent riots in Brasilia and the attempted bomb attack carried out by supporters of the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro
The 77-year-old veteran politician begins a new period full of challenges: he will have to face a serious economic situation, with 33 million people facing hunger, 11 million unemployed, insecurity, environmental problems and complex geopolitics.
In the same way, Lula knows he has to govern “for the 215 million Brazilians” and has assured that “two countries do not exist”, but the results of the presidential elections have shown that it will not be easy at all: the ballot boxes reflect a country fractured between two opposing views, a Congress and three important states dominated by Bolsonarism.
Lula will try to recover the international relevance that Brazil had during his mandate. According to analysts, Bolsonaro’s diplomacy leaves Brazil isolated, mainly due to its efforts to end the traditional equidistance, with its excessive alignment with former US president Donald Trump to the detriment of China (its main trading partner ahead of the United States). with countries governed by the conservative right.
On the other hand, Lula’s tenure is also expected to give a reprieve to the Brazilian Amazon, which has seen record deforestation and fires under Bolsonaro in recent years. This is due, according to environmentalists, to the rhetoric and measures adopted by the now outgoing president to encourage the advance of agri-food over protected areas, including indigenous reserves.
