The veteran politician, taking workplace for an historic third time period, faces the problem of uniting the nation polarised underneath far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Leftist chief Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has pledged to “rebuild” Brazil “with the folks” as he was sworn in as the brand new president of the fiercely polarised nation for a historic third time period.
The inauguration ceremony in Congress started at 3pm (18:00 GMT) on Sunday underneath tightened safety after alleged threats of violence by supporters of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
“Our message to Brazil is one in every of hope and reconstruction,” Lula stated in a speech earlier than the Chamber of Deputies, the decrease home of Congress, after signing the doc that formally instated him as president.
“The nice edifice of rights, sovereignty and improvement that this nation constructed has been systematically demolished lately. And to re-erect this edifice, we're going to direct all our efforts.”
The veteran chief additionally promised to struggle to enhance life for poor Brazilians, work in direction of racial and gender equality, and obtain zero deforestation within the Amazon rainforest.
“The mandate we acquired, within the face of opponents impressed by fascism, will likely be defended via our democratic structure. We'll reply to hate with love, to lies with the reality, to terrorism and violence with the regulation.”
Lula additionally delivered a veiled risk to Bolsonaro, who faces mounting authorized dangers for his anti-democratic rhetoric and his dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic now that he not has presidential immunity.
“We don't carry any spirit of revenge towards those that tried to subjugate the nation to their private and ideological designs, however we'll assure the rule of regulation,” Lula stated, with out mentioning his predecessor by title. “Those that erred will reply for his or her errors.”
He additionally accused Bolsonaro’s administration of committing “genocide” by failing to reply correctly to the COVID-19 emergency that killed greater than 680,000 Brazilians.
“The duties for this genocide have to be investigated and should not go unpunished,” he stated.
1000's of individuals in Brazil attended the inauguration of veteran left-wing politician Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, as he was sworn in because the nation’s new president 👇 pic.twitter.com/M1b5jVnk2M
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 2, 2023
‘Comeback for the ages’
The swearing-in started with a minute of silence for Brazilian soccer legend Pele and former Pope Benedict XVI, who each died in latest days.
Tens of 1000's of red-clad supporters cheered loudly as Lula’s motorcade slowly rolled down Brasilia’s Esplanade of Ministries, escorted by dozens of bodyguards.
International dignitaries, together with 19 heads of state, had been in attendance as Lula took the oath of workplace for a brand new four-year time period. Amongst them had been the king of Spain and the presidents of Germany, Portugal, and a raft of Latin American nations.
Lula, 77, narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in October to win an unprecedented third presidential time period after a hiatus that noticed him spend a yr and a half behind bars on corruption convictions that had been later overturned.
In his earlier years because the president of the Employees’ Celebration (PT) from 2003 to 2010, the previous union chief lifted thousands and thousands of Brazilians out of poverty throughout a commodity increase that buoyed the financial system.
“It's a comeback for the ages and Lula’s political projecture has been a trajectory of unbelievable accomplishments,” Gustavo Ribeiro, founding father of The Brazilian Report, advised Al Jazeera.
“He was a poverty migrant, labored as a shoe shiner, labored on a manufacturing facility flooring then rose to union chief. He misplaced three presidential races earlier than he received two phrases,” he stated.
Now, Lula faces the daunting problem of enhancing Brazil’s stagnant financial system whereas additionally bringing collectively a rustic that has develop into painfully polarised underneath Bolsonaro.
“It's a very divided nation that Lula will inherit, and one in every of his many challenges will likely be to unite the nation as soon as extra,” stated Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew, reporting from a sit-in the place Bolsonaro supporters have been tenting out for greater than two months.
Ribeiro echoes that sentiment. “I don’t assume Lula will profit from that proverbial honeymoon interval that new presidents get pleasure from. An enormous chunk of the nation doesn’t see him as a official chief. He'll take over a cash-strapped authorities with a variety of challenges forward of him,” he stated.
Lula has promised, in his phrases, to “make Brazil glad once more”. However he faces many hurdles, from rising poverty to public companies in disaster, together with lack of funding in training and healthcare.
‘Social disintegration’
Bolsonaro’s supporters have falsely claimed that the election was stolen and have protested for 2 months, calling for a army coup to cease Lula from returning to workplace in a local weather of vandalism and violence.
Police stated they arrested a person on Sunday after he tried to enter the secured inaugural ceremony space carrying a knife and fireworks.
Final week, a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives close to the Brasilia airport, a plot he stated aimed to “sow chaos” within the nation.
Bolsonaro left Brazil on Friday for Florida in the USA, avoiding having at hand over the sash to his rival, whose victory he has but to recognise, whereas additionally eradicating himself from any quick authorized dangers associated to his time in workplace.
Earlier than flying to Florida, Bolsonaro delivered a teary deal with to the nation wherein he condemned the bomb plot as a “terrorist act”, however praised protesters camped outdoors military barracks throughout the nation.
In a thinly veiled dig, performing President Hamilton Mourao, who was Bolsonaro’s vice chairman, criticised his former boss for failing to guide the nation and permitting anti-democratic sentiment to thrive after his October defeat on the polls.
“Leaders who had been presupposed to reassure and unite the nation … allowed silence or inopportune and deleterious protagonism to create an environment of chaos and social disintegration,” Mourao stated in a speech on Saturday evening.
Tight safety
Authorities deployed 10,000 police and troops to strengthen safety at Sunday’s occasions and to go looking members, who couldn't deliver bottles, cans, flag masts or toy weapons. Carrying firearms by civilians has additionally been briefly banned.
1000's of Lula supporters have been flooding the capital, travelling by airplane, automobile and even bicycle to camp out close to the Esplanade of Ministries.
After the swearing-in, Lula left Congress in an open-top Rolls-Royce. He then arrived on the Planalto Palace, the place he walked up its ramp with a various group that included his spouse Rosangela, Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapó tribe, a younger Black boy and a disabled man. Lula was then handed the presidential sash – a vastly symbolic act in Brazil that Bolsonaro had repeatedly stated he would by no means do – by a Black lady.
It was the primary time because the finish of Brazil’s 1965-1985 army dictatorship that an incoming president didn't obtain the yellow-and-green sash from his predecessor.
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