MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula launches 2022 presidential campaign: “health, jobs and justice for Brazil”

“This country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government,” Lula told the audience at the metalworkers union in Sao Bernardo do Campo

Former Brazilian President Lula da Silva launched on Wednesday the campaign for the 2022 presidential election, which is anticipated will be dominated by attacks on Jair Bolsonaro on the pandemic, a weak economy and deep political polarization.

In his first public comments since his graft convictions were annulled by a Supreme Court justice on Monday, Lula said he had not decided whether to run in next year's election. But his long, impassioned speech, delivered under a banner proclaiming “Health, jobs and justice for Brazil” in the union where his political career took off in the 1980s, had the feel of a campaign launch.

“This country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government,” he told the audience at the metalworkers union in Sao Bernardo do Campo, comparing the current economic crisis to strong growth and falling inequality when he led Brazil from 2003 until 2011.

Lula attacked Bolsonaro directly for his record in handling the coronavirus pandemic, especially for delays in obtaining vaccines and for his public dismissal of their effectiveness. Brazil has lost nearly 270,000 people to COVID-19, the worst death toll outside the United States, as local variants push the country's outbreak into its worst phase yet.

“Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated,” Lula said

The former president's speech prompted an immediate reaction from Bolsonaro, who defended his handling of the pandemic. ”(Lula's criticism) is unjustified. He is now beginning his campaign, but has nothing good to show. Their campaign is merely to criticize, lie and promote disinformation,“ Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil.

He said he would propose legislation restoring paper ballots that can be audited for the 2022 election because he does not trust the electronic balloting. The president added that the corruption convictions against Lula have not yet been annulled by the full bench of the Supreme Court, meaning a 2022 election run may not be guaranteed.

However, there were signs that Lula's messaging on the pandemic had rattled Bolsonaro. Within hours of Lula's criticism, Bolsonaro and his aides appeared masked at an official event in Brasilia — a rare sighting for the president, who has shunned masks, played down the gravity of the virus and said he would refuse a vaccine.

”We were tireless from the first moment in fighting the pandemic,“ he said, saying that Brazil would have 400 million vaccine doses by the end of this year.

In his speech, Lula cast himself as a veteran statesman eager to set the country on the right track, stressing his respect for the free press, business leaders and the military, while calling for a broad coalition to defeat Bolsonaro.

”I was called 'conciliatory' when I governed,“ he said. ”I'm open to talking with everyone.”

However, Lula also reinforced longstanding views that have set financial markets on edge at the prospect of his political resurrection. The former union leader decried privatizations, central bank autonomy and asset sales by state-run oil firm Petrobras