President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took advantage this Wednesday of the signing of the law that four four-star generals, the day before, for trying to cling to power by force. “Yesterday, Brazil gave a lesson in democracy to the world, without fanfare, justice demonstrated its strength, showed that it is not intimidated and made an exquisite judgment,” he proclaimed at the Planalto palace, in Brasilia. The veteran leftist has urged his compatriots to shake off the inferiority complex and take pride in the strength of their institutions.
Lula has wanted to convert the protocol act of affixing the presidential signature into a law that, something truly extraordinary in these times, in the first event of his electoral campaign for 2026. Having turned 80, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Brazilian left confirmed a month ago that he will seek a second re-election.
“I am not happy because they are going to jail, I am happy because Brazil has shown that it is mature to defend democracy” and that “democracy is valid for everyone,” said Lula, who knows what it is like, even if it is, like Jair Bolsonaro now, in a police station with certain comforts. The far-right, who presided over Brazil under the previous president, and four of the generals who accompanied him at the top of power are on their first day of plotting a coup d’état. A moment that will go down in history for the military coup leaders.
Four years have passed since , when he won those elections against Bolsonaro at the head of a broad alliance, with the commitment to defend democracy against any authoritarian attack and, as far as affecting the voters’ pockets, with the promise to eliminate the income tax for those who earned less than 5,000 reais (800 euros or 930 dollars). The message of the event was “promise fulfilled.”
Ten million middle-class Brazilians will stop paying income tax starting next year, another five million will pay less (those who earn up to 1,180 euros, 1,380 dollars) and, to maintain fiscal balance, a minimum rate is introduced. This means that, in return, 140,000 super-rich compatriots, who pay an average rate of less than 3%, will now pay the minimum, 10%.
This tax reform “is not going to save humanity, the poor will remain poor.” With these words, Lula himself has made it clear that the measure is transcendental, but it represents just one step in the fight against the obscene inequality that tears Brazil apart. His Minister of Finance and designer of the tax reduction, Fernando Haddad, has illustrated with a couple of data the magnitude of this colossal gap. The first: “The 1% of the super-rich have half of Brazil’s wealth.” And “inequality in Brazil is worse than in 47 of the 54 countries in Africa.” Haddad was the one designated by Lula to face Bolsonaro in the elections while he was in prison.
Both president and minister have celebrated that poverty and inequality are at historic lows, according to a study released this Tuesday, thanks to the creation of jobs, the increase in income and social aid programs.
Lula has given a passionate speech in which he has defended, once again, that he and his work are living proof that it is possible to change the world. Faithful to a script that he has been perfecting for half a century, Lula has recalled his personal story – the factory worker who became president of a country dominated by an elite -, in the northeast, the lesson of his mother, Doña Lindu – “you must not have debts -, the three electoral defeats, his way of doing politics – “find the middle path, not serving this one or the other, but everyone”, his – “I don’t want to take the son of the middle class out of university to put a black man in, I want to give the black man a chance”… Without forgetting to remember that 700 million people produce 2.5 times what they eat and spend 2.7 billion dollars on weapons.
The president of Brazil has emphasized that the extreme right triumphs not because of the appeal of its anti-system discourse, but because “the people have stopped believing in democracy.” And in that context, he has praised the response of Brazilian institutions against the coup attack of Bolsonarism.
But, reflecting Lula’s difficulties in governing, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are at odds with the Government over various internal policy differences and have refused the invitation to accompany him in the presentation of the tax reduction. Personally, his wife, Janja, was not by his side despite the importance of the event.
President Lula wants to make “tax justice” his main banner to win a fourth term next October. Meanwhile, the right, with Bolsonaro in jail, is looking for a candidate to compete with the veteran leftist, who leads the polls. The opposition is going to try to make public security the main focus of the electoral campaign.
