The PT pre-candidate for the presidency of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday (12) during a campaign event in Brasilia called on militants and supporters not to agree to provocations in the period leading up to the elections. “We don’t need to fight,” he said.
Lula made the request after commenting on the murder over the weekend of Marcelo Arruda, a municipal security guard and PT treasurer in Foz do Iguacu (PR). Arruda was assassinated by a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) during his own birthday party, where he honored PT and Lula himself.
“I do not want anyone to accept provocations. For three months we will breed outside. We will breed by marching. Gandhi didn’t. We don’t have to fight. The serenity, the love we have inside, the thirst we have to improve the lives of the Brazilian people. We must not put up with provocations in Brazil.
For the former president, “they are trying to turn the election campaign into a war.”
This statement was Lula’s first public appearance since the death of Marcelo Arruda, the PT treasurer, who was assassinated by a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
PT links the death of the militant in Paraná to an “escalation of political violence” fueled by the actions of the Bolsonaro government.
An increase in political violence was the subject of a meeting last Monday (11) between Lula and leaders of the Lula-Alkmin party alliance. At the meeting, the leaders of the subheadings decided not to retreat from public events and advocate that supporters do not engage in provocations from opponents.
At an event with the militants, Lula took the opportunity to criticize Bolsonaro, who, according to the PT, “does not respect anyone” because “he does not have a good brain mass in his head.”
In the latest Datafolha poll, the former president appears with 47% of the intention to vote, and Bolsonaro with 28%.
“This is a man with inhuman, evil behavior who thinks of no one but himself,” he said.
At the end of his speech, Lula announced that, if elected, he would re-establish the Ministry of Culture that Bolsonaro had liquidated.
“We are going to recreate the Ministry of Culture and set up a cultural committee in every capital of the country so that no one will ever dare [tentar] put an end to the culture of this country,” he said.
Lula once again said that the poorest people should take money from Auxílio Brasil, which will grow from 400 to 600 reais by the end of the year with the approval of the so-called “PEC kamikaze”. but you shouldn’t vote for Bolsonaro because of this.
“We are going to take over a country much worse than the one I inherited from Fernando Enrique Cardoso. But I am destined and predestined to face difficulties. And I want the Brazilian public to know that I want to be the president of this country again. Breakfast lunch and dinner. I want people to have the right to study at the university, have a decent job, go to the theater, cinema, relax in the neighborhood. I’m more demanding,” he said.
A few hours before the political act, Lula took part in an event with businessmen from the commercial sector organized by the National Commerce Confederation (CNC). At the meeting, he promised to treat the sector “with love” in the future government.
Decisions will not be made overnight, he said. “We will try to find a solution that better reflects the relationship of capital and labor in this country,” he said.
The former president defended former governor Geraldo Alcmina’s candidacy for vice president and credited him with meeting members of the confederation. The PT sees Alkmin as a source of rapprochement between PT members and sectors of the economy far from the party.
“He will not be a toy vice. He will be a real vice,” said Lula.
“I owe my coming here to Alcmene. I have not yet been in a debate with either a businessman or anyone else, because I am not yet officially a presidential candidate,” he said.
