President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) said on Tuesday, reopening in Rio the Capanema Palace, that Brazilian democracy is “Capenga”. He celebrated, however, that the 2022 and 2023 coup plot did not convert to democratic rupture. Earlier, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has been defendants more investigated in the case. The first lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, was one of the personalities who gained the solemnity the Order of Cultural Merit, the main public honor of the Brazilian cultural sector.
“We can keep democracy chapenging, but walking. We are living the longest time of democracy in this country. From the 1988 constituent, it is the most enduring moment of the democratic system, even with all the defects that some see,” he pointed to a plateum full of artists. “Even so they tried to blow on January 8, and society has rejected. If it depends on all of us here, this country will never have to suffer a blow.”
Lula was in Rio to participate in the reopening of the Capanema Palace, one of the milestones of Brazilian modernism. The building has been closed for ten years.
In the discourse in defense of culture, the president criticized the idea of selling the palace placed ongoing during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, also the target of Lula because of the extinction of the Ministry of Culture.
“In fact, they usually hate culture. They prefer weapons to books, dance, fine arts. But there is also something bigger: they fear the revolutionary strength of arts and culture,” Lula claimed.
The palace resumption works began in February 2019, focusing on the restoration of structure and preservation. R $ 84.3 million were invested via Growth Acceleration Program (New PAC).
Continues after advertising
The work included internal modernization and the recovery of Burle Marx gardens furniture and structural interventions in the electrical, sanitary, hydraulic and firefighting facilities that were redone. Capanema will be open to public visitation in parallel to the administrative activities of the Ministry of Culture (MINC) and linked institutions.
The idea is that, from the second half, the terrace will shelter a restaurant with the outside, with a unique view of the center, open to visitation. The project provides that 60% of the building is dedicated to cultural activities and 40% for the administrative part.
Raised between 1937 and 1945, a period that coincides with the Estado Novo, the 16 -story building is listed by IPHAN and had as its first destination to host the then Ministry of Education and Public Health. Considered an icon of world modernist architecture, she had a project conceived by Lucio Costa with the participation of Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Carlos Leão, Jorge Moreira, Ernani Vasconcelos and Le Corbusier consulting.
Continues after advertising
At the ceremony on Tuesday, the Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, and the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes (PSD), among other authorities were attended by Lula.
Honored janja
Janja was recognized in the Grand Cross Degree, the largest of three degrees, intended for a select group. Besides her, they are on the list names such as Fernanda Torres, Walter Salles and Marcelo Rubens Paiva, in evidence after the victory of the first Oscar to the country with the movie “I’m still here.”
In all, 112 people and 14 institutions were awarded this year.
Continues after advertising
In 2023, the first lady was also honored by the government with the highest degree of the Order of Rio Branco, granted by the Brazilian government to distinguish individuals, legal entities and entities “by their exceptional services or merits”.
