MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Labor Day becomes election campaign street demonstration in Brazil

Bolsonaro walked through his supporters and said very little while Lula gave yet another speech

Sunday's Labor Day demonstrations in Brazil were tainted with political connotations as massive events nationwide gathered leftwing followers of former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva on one side and those of rightwing incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro on the other.

With five months to go before the Oct. 2 elections, Lula, who ruled the country between 2003 and 2010, remains the favorite contender with 43% of the voting intention, according to most polls.

Marches were peaceful since early Sunday morning in cities such as Fortaleza, Recife, Belo Horizonte, and Rio de Janeiro, where Lula's supporters gathered in Parque do Flamengo, near the center of the city, while the Bolsonarists gathered in front of Copacabana beach.

In Brasilia, protests also began in the morning. Bolsonaro himself made a surprise appearance around noon in the Alameda das Banderas, in front of the National Congress.

However, the president refrained from making any statements, although he did stop in front of a person who was broadcasting the event on Facebook and said he was there to “greet the people who are here in a peaceful demonstration in defense of the Constitution, justice and freedom” amid posters and speeches calling for military intervention and attacking the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF, supreme court), according to G1.

Lula was the main speaker at the event organized by the labor federations CUT, Fuerza Sindical, UGT, CTB, NCST, Intersindical Central de la Clase Trabajadora and Central de Empleados Públicos.

”Someone better than that president (Bolsonaro) is going to win the elections,“ said Lula in his speech at Charles Miller Square, in São Paulo. ”We have to make an immeasurable struggle so that we can reduce inflation and transform what is inflation into a wage increase so that people can eat and live better,“ he added.

Lula also apologized for having said yesterday that ”Bolsonaro only likes the police.“

”I meant to say that Bolsonaro only likes the militia, he doesn't like people, and I said he only likes the police, he doesn't like people,“ he explained.

”I want to take this opportunity and apologize to the police because many times they make mistakes but many times they save many people of the working people and we have to treat them as workers,” Lula added.

Bolsonaro supporters in São Paulo held a rally of their own on Paulista Avenue, while the Workers' Party (PT) of Lula also had its own march in the federal capital.

Brazil will hold general elections on October 2, in which Bolsonaro will seek to be reelected but for which all polls of voting intentions so far give a solid advantage to Lula.