Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed to struggle for the poor and the setting as he took workplace for a 3rd time period as Brazil’s president on Sunday.
He additionally pledged to “rebuild the country” after far-right chief Jair Bolsonaro’s divisive administration.
The 77-year-old veteran leftist, who beforehand led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, took the oath of workplace earlier than Congress, capping a exceptional political comeback for the metalworker-turned-president lower than 5 years after he was jailed on controversial, since-quashed corruption prices.
A sea of red-clad supporters braved the scorching warmth to flood Brasilia, exuberantly cheering Lula as he was pushed by way of the ultramodern capital in a black convertible Rolls-Royce, accompanied by First Lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.
Giving a blistering overview of the previous 4 years beneath Bolsonaro – who snubbed the ceremony, in a break with custom – Lula stated his authorities would work to undo a legacy of financial decline, surging poverty and funding cuts in well being, training and science.
“Upon these terrible ruins, I pledge to rebuild the country, together with the Brazilian people,” he stated, vowing to struggle for poor Brazilians, racial and gender equality, and nil deforestation within the Amazon rainforest, the place destruction surged beneath Bolsonaro.
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.
Wearing a blue swimsuit and tie, the charismatic however controversial Lula was then pushed from Congress to the Planalto presidential palace, escorted by dozens of bodyguards.
There, he acquired the presidential sash from eight residents chosen to signify the Brazilian individuals, together with a schoolteacher, a disabled man, a precocious 10-year-old and famend Indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire.
An emotional Lula broke down in tears, thanking the Brazilian individuals for his or her religion in him and vowing to struggle for a extra simply nation.
He additionally prolonged an olive department to the numerous Brazilians who didn’t vote for him within the election, which he received by a razor-thin 50.9% to Bolsonaro’s 49.1%.
“I will govern for all 215 million Brazilians,” he stated.
“There aren’t two Brazils. We are one country, one people.”
‘Historic day’
It is the primary time for the reason that finish of Brazil’s 1965-1985 navy dictatorship that an incoming chief has not acquired the yellow-and-green presidential sash from his predecessor.
Bolsonaro, who has not explicitly acknowledged his loss or congratulated Lula, left Brazil for the U.S. state of Florida on Friday.
The snub hardly dampened the get together spirit of the New Year’s Day ceremony, which included a large live performance that includes acts from samba legend Martinho da Vila to tug queen Pabllo Vittar.
Wearing a pink hat, attendee Lurdiana Araujo known as it a second of “rebirth” – for each Brazil and Lula, who had develop into a political pariah till the Supreme Court quashed his corruption convictions in 2021, ruling the lead decide within the case had been biased.
“We’ve spent the past four years suffering. Now we are witnessing a rebirth of democracy,” the 51-year-old stated.
Foreign dignitaries together with 19 heads of state have been in attendance.
They included the presidents of a raft of Latin American nations, Germany, Portugal and the king of Spain.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who didn’t attend, posted on Twitter a photograph of himself with Lula, saying “Order and Progress” – the phrases which adorn the Brazilian flag.
He added: “Brazil lives up to its motto. Congratulations dear President, dear friend.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted his congratulations, saying: “Here’s to a bright future for our countries and the world.”
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu additionally attended the oath-taking ceremony.
“Attended oath-taking ceremony of @LulaOfficial, President of #Brazil. Conveyed President Erdoğan’s message of congratulations,” Çavuşoğlu wrote on Twitter on Monday, sharing footage of him attending the ceremony.
Security was exceptionally tight for the ceremony after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested final week for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives close to the capital’s airport.
But no main incidents have been reported.
Reversing Bolsonaro insurance policies
Lula received straight to work with a flurry of measures to bolster gun-control laws slashed by Bolsonaro, revoke the ex-president’s rollbacks of environmental protections, and revive the internationally backed Amazon Fund to guard the rainforest.
Lula faces quite a few pressing challenges in Latin America’s greatest economic system, which seems little just like the commodities-fueled dynamo he led within the 2000s.
They embrace rebooting financial development, curbing rampant deforestation and delivering on his formidable agenda to struggle poverty and inequality.
Markets are in the meantime watching nervously how Lula will fund his promised social spending, given Brazil’s overstretched authorities funds.
He will face a Congress dominated by Bolsonaro’s conservative allies.
Meanwhile, simply 51% of Brazilians assume he’ll do a greater job than Bolsonaro, in line with a ballot revealed Saturday by the Datafolha institute.
