Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to be sworn in for a third term as Brazil’s president on Sunday, in a ceremony marked by the deep divisions over the left-wing veteran’s legacy from outgoing leader Jair Bolsonaro. was clarified.
The swearing-in will mark a remarkable political comeback for Lula, 77, who has returned to the presidential palace in Brasilia less than five years after being jailed on controversial corruption charges.
Security will be unusually tight at the lavish event in the capital, symbolizing the scars left by Lula’s brutal election showdown with far-right ex-army captain Bolsonaro in October.
About 8,000 police – including more than 1,000 federal officers, will provide security – a record deployment for a presidential inauguration in Brazil.
The swift moves come after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested last week on charges of setting off a tanker truck packed with explosives near Brasilia airport, in a plot to “sow chaos” in the South American country. Is.
Bolsonaro himself left Brazil for the US state of Florida on Friday – reportedly to avoid handing over the presidency to his bitter enemy, as tradition dictates.
The snub has hardly dampened the party spirit for Lula and the 300,000 people expected at the event and a huge concert that will feature acts from samba legend Martinho da Vila to drag queen Pablo Vitar.
Thousands of Lula’s supporters are flooding into the capital, traveling by plane, car and even bicycle to camp out near the Esplanade of Ministries.
Foreign dignitaries, including 17 heads of state, will be in attendance as Lula, who previously led the country through a watershed boom from 2003 to 2010, will be re-elected at 3:00 pm (1800 GMT) for a new four-year term. Will take the oath of office. .
They include presidents of Latin American countries, kings of Germany, Portugal and Spain.
After being sworn in before Congress, Lula will travel by car — traditionally a black convertible Rolls-Royce, though officials said it could be changed for security reasons — to the ultra-modern capital’s presidential palace. to the Planalto.
There they will walk up a ramp to the entrance and receive a gold and diamond embroidered presidential sash.
Organizers of the ceremony – headed by first lady-to-be Rosangela “Jinja” da Silva – have kept a secret about who will give Lula the sesh in Bolsonaro’s absence.
It will be the first time since the end of Brazil’s 1965-1985 military dictatorship that an incoming president will not receive the yellow and green mantle from his predecessor.
– pressing the to-do list –
Lula faces a number of immediate challenges for Latin America’s largest economy, which in the 2000s looked like a commodity-fueled dynamo.
These include restarting economic growth, halting the rampant deforestation of the Amazon and advancing his ambitious agenda to fight poverty and inequality.
An estimated 30 million of Brazil’s 215 million people live in hunger, and the economy is still struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Vice President-elect Geraldo Alkman called the incoming administration’s task “intense.”
Lula faces a Congress dominated by Bolsonaro’s conservative allies.
He is also angered by far-right hardliners who have been rallying outside military bases to keep him out of power since he won an Oct. 30 runoff election 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent. They are demanding military intervention.
“He will have to work hard in his first 100 days to show where Lula is going in Part Three,” said Leandro Consentino, a political scientist at the Inspire Institute in Sao Paulo.
“His election victory was hard-fought, and he will face a divided country and a militant opposition. He will have to lead a government of national unity and restore peace.
Meanwhile, markets are nervously watching how Lula will fund his promised social spending while boosting Brazil’s government finances.
“Our priority will be to take care of the poorest, the neediest, the working people,” Lula said recently.