Never before in this country has a first lady paraded in Sapucaí. Rosângela Lula da Silva, , will be the first hostess of Palácio da Alvorada to parade through a samba school in . Janja will be in one on Sunday, February 15th, in the plot that will honor the president (). to watch the parade.
“From Alto do Mulungu Hope Arises: Lula, the Worker of Brazil” is the plot of the Niterói group, which portrays the president’s trajectory from his childhood to becoming the Presidency of the Republic.
In addition to the current first lady, the association also pays tribute to former first lady Marisa Letícia (1950-2017), who will be represented by actress Juliana Baroni. In 2012, , which presented the plot “Verás que Um Filho Teu Não Foge à Luta – Lula, o Retrato de uma Nação”, but she was no longer First Lady. The president had completed his second term the previous year.
Other presidents, such as and , have already been honored in sambas-enredo, in 1956 and 1981, respectively. Both parades were led by and took place on Avenida Presidente Vargas, in the center of Rio de Janeiro, and on Rua Marquês de Sapucaí itself, before the construction of the Sambadrome, opened in 1984.
Furthermore, other representatives were represented as satires in Sapucaí’s plots. Acadêmicos de Niterói cast comedian Marcelo Adnet to play the former president during the 2026 presentation, according to the portal.
In 2020, Acadêmicos do Vigário Geral paraded in the Ouro series, the second division of Rio’s carnival, with a float that alluded to Bolsonaro, painted as a clown. In 2018, it was the turn of , who was lampooned by Paraíso do Tuiuti in a parade by the group Especial, the first division, .
First lady Scylla Médici (1907-2003), wife of general Emílio Garrastazu Médici, was represented for an unusual reason by União de Maricá in 2025, in the Ouro series. The plot “O Cavalo de Santíssimo e a Coroa do Seu 7”, written by carnival artist Leandro Vieira, paid homage to the figure of Seu 7 da Lira, an Exu from Umbanda in Rio. The couple’s appearance in the parade referenced the popular belief that the former first lady had incorporated the entity in the 1970s.
In 1996, the then First Lady Ruth Cardoso (1930-2008), wife of , was joined by defenders of the liberation of marijuana, in Olinda (PE). Weeks earlier, the then first lady had spoken out in favor of the decriminalization of marijuana on Programa Livre, led by Serginho Groisman on SBT.
TSE
This Thursday (12), the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) decided to reject the representations against the parade in honor of Lula due to early electoral propaganda, regarding possible illegalities in the event.
The president of the court, Cármen Lúcia stated that Carnival cannot be a “window” for electoral crimes and that there is a “very concrete, plausible risk that something illegal will happen” in the case, which would be analyzed by the Electoral Court.
“This does not seem to be a scenario of white sand on a beach, it seems more like a scenario of quicksand. Whoever enters enters knowing that they could sink”, said the president of the TSE.
