MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Ex-President Cardoso says Bolsonaro wants to run for presidency against Lula; and will win

“The illusions of Brazil's proximity to the United States disappeared with Trump,” said Cardoso.

Former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002) said in a newspaper interview that Jair Bolsonaro wanted to take on ex-President Lula da Silva in the next elections. And he would beat him.

Regarding the acquittal of Lula of all corruption charges levied against him, which would make the Workers' Party (PT) leader eligible to run for the presidency, Cardoso said: “This is all Bolsonaro wants.”

The 89-year-old Cardoso, who speaks excellent Spanish, told the Buenos Aires daily La Nación in an online interview published Friday, that he had taken advantage of the coronavirus confinements to finish writing a book on the crisis of contemporary democracies. “In various parts of the world, democracies are doing badly, but authoritarian regimes are worse,”

Having received the first dose of an anti coronavirus vaccine, Cardoso, honorary president of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), was critical of the way current President Jair Bolsonaro was handling the situation. “Brazil always placed trust in governments and action was demanded of them.”

Cardoso did not hide his pessimism for the future: “Lula, a former union leader, represents a world that no longer exists. ... And in politics, either he looks ahead or there is nowhere to look. Bolsonaro meant in 2018 an alert against the danger of the left, but today no one is afraid of any left. Bolsonaro was that, a nervous, angry alert, which is not good for the country. Our inclination, our political culture, is more one of acceptance, of tolerance. I don't know who is going to be that person who can get out of that logic, it is too soon to know...”

Regarding last year's elections in the United States, the former president said “Joe Biden's victory was important, I don't know what his position will be in relation to Latin America, nor do I think that Argentina or Brazil should align themselves automatically. Governments must align themselves with their people, not with other states, and that is true for all countries. But it was positive because [Former US President Donald] Trump had an 'anti' attitude” and “the illusions of Brazil's proximity to the United States disappeared with Trump.”

Asked whether Argentina's future can be similar to Venezuela's, he replied that “I don't think Argentina has been as disorganized as Venezuela was. Today it has a democratic government. In Brazil, for example, I think there could not be a Hugo Chávez, a very Caribbean character, who liked to have a leading role in the world and disorganized his country quite a bit. Argentina never reached such a level and that comparison does not seem fair to me. The Argentine economy always had problems, it had a very good agriculture, a very good cattle ranch and its industrial sector was never good.”

Cardoso explained that “Bolsonaro's liberalism is relative,” adding that “the president today is a military man.” He claimed to know what that meant first hand: “My father and grandfather were military men, and that is why I reasonably know military sentiment. They are, first of all, the State, not the market.”

In Cardoso's mind, “Lula is going to dare to be a candidate” for the presidency and even if that means a left vs. right polarization against Bolsonaro, “whoever comes out as a candidate cannot be from an amorphous center, he must take sides.” And if it boils down to Bolsonaro vs Lula, “I think Bolsonaro will win again, I am sorry to say.”