The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 79, is already resting at his home in São Paulo after overcoming a brain hemorrhage. and this Sunday morning, he was discharged from the Syrian Lebanese Hospital in São Paulo. He appeared before the press with his head covered with a hat and in a good mood: “I am alive, whole and eager to work (…) I have a lot of work to do,” he said smiling.
Lula will remain at his residence in São Paulo at least until Thursday, when he will undergo a control tomography to verify if he can return to his work routine in Brasilia. The medical team recommended 15 days of relative rest and at least two months without physical activities. Lula regretted that he will have to give up his daily bodybuilding exercises and his jogging on the treadmill at the gym, but he promised to rest: “I am going to try to obey with great respect, I am very disciplined. I never think that I am going to die, but I am afraid, so I have to take care of myself, and I know how to take care of myself very well,” he said with his wife, first lady Janja da Silva, who has been with him at all times in these days.
The most delicate week for the Brazilian president’s health started on Monday with some severe headaches. Since he had suffered a domestic accident in October when he slipped in the bathroom and hit his head, he quickly went to the hospital in Brasilia. It was immediately confirmed that he was suffering from a frontoparietal hematoma, between the brain and a membrane of the meninge, so the medical team decided to take him urgently on a military plane to the Syrian Lebanese Hospital in São Paulo. He was operated on for two hours and, according to doctors, the operation was a success: the president’s brain tissue was not affected, so there will be no physical or neurological consequences. Lula recovered in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) until this time a simpler procedure to prevent further bleeding. The recovery was quick and on Friday Lula already published a video on his social networks walking briskly through the hospital corridors.
While the Brazilian leader finished recovering, the news outside the walls of the hospital did not let up. On Saturday, an Army general accused of being the ringleader of the plot that sought to carry out a coup d’état in 2022 to prevent Lula from starting his third government. When asked about the arrest, the president defended his presumption of innocence, but asked that he be punished “severely” if his coup strategy is confirmed. “It is not possible for us to accept the lack of respect for democracy, for the Constitution and admit that in a generous country like Brazil there are people of high military rank plotting the assassination of a president of the Republic, his vice president and the presiding judge. the Federal Supreme Court,” he stated.
Almost 80 years old, Lula is generally in good health, and he likes to show off his good condition and his exercise routine. Since 2022, he has undergone surgery on two other occasions, to remove a nodule in his throat and to place a prosthesis in his hip. The elections are in 2026 and at the moment, everything indicates that he intends to seek re-election.
A Quaest survey released this week suggests that, as of today, the veteran of the left would win in all scenarios: both against Bolsonaro (who in principle is disqualified by the Electoral Justice and cannot run) and against other possible candidates. substitutes in the right field. When he was still in the UCI, the communication secretary of the Workers’ Party (PT), Jilmar Tatto, nipped in the bud any attempt to open a succession debate: “Lula is our plan A, B, C, D, E, F , G and H. He is our candidate in 2026, no one discusses that in the PT,” he stated bluntly.
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