MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula da Silva discards re-election and denies heavy drinking

Brazilian president Lula da Silva reiterated he was against a hypothetical reelection for a third mandate but did not deny the possibility of running again in 2014, according to a Sunday interview with Folha do Sao Paulo. The president also pointed out that the last time he got drunk was in 1974.

"It would be politically childish to say I'm currently deciding what I'll be doing in 2014 or 2015. If that effectively happens it will be the circumstances of the moment, certainly not now", insisted Lula da Silva. Since re-election and the beginning of his second mandate last January the Brazilian president is doing extremely well in opinion polls and some advisors and followers have been floating the idea of another reelection which is banned under the Brazilian constitution. "Alternation in office is essential education for the building of democracy. Nobody is irreplaceable", said Lula da Silva underlining that those who insist with the initiative of a third consecutive mandate "don't' understand or take politics seriously". The Brazilian president also recalled his old dispute with "The New York Times" whose correspondent in Brazil published at the time that the president's weakness "for alcohol" had become a national concern. "What exasperates me are lies; how impudent. I doubt there's a single journalist in Brazil that has ever seen me drunk", Lula da Silva told Folha do Sao Paulo. "And I want to make this very clear, for everybody. The last time I really drank was when Brazil lost to Holland, 2-0 in the 1974 World Cup played in Germany. It was also the first time I had ever since color television", admitted Lula da Silva who at the time was a union leader working his way up the ranks. "We'd closed the union headquarters to celebrate Brazil's victory but we lost and ended sorrow drinking. I arrived home really stoned, but that was it, never again", underlined Lula da Silva who is known to use simple (and coarse) language. "A dirty word when said with full strength, sounds nice", he admitted trying to explain his daily way of life. "But I was very angry then, because how could a citizen that had never spoken with me, that had never shared a bottle of beer, or even a glass of water write a piece saying that I was a heavy drinker", indicated the Brazilian president about the argument with the NYT in 2004. "I was really mad. If people ask me if I drink, I say so. Yes I drink I enjoy a whisky every now and then. But I don't like beer and I don't fancy wine much. I doubt very much anyone has even seen me drunk since 1974". President Lula da Silva is known to suffer bursitis, which usually is common among heavy beer drinkers. Beer is Brazil's most popular drink.