MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilians will again eat three meals a day, vowed Lula

“Poor people were not born to be poor all their lives,” Lula told his supporters

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Dda Silva Wednesday said during a visit to his native state of Pernambuco that people in his country will go back to eating at least three meals a day if he beats the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the Oct. 2 elections.

“This is a commitment that I want to have with you, this people will return to eating three times a day,” said the Workers' Party (PT) leader in a rally at Garanhuns, where he was born.

Lula is between 15 and 20 percentage points ahead of Bolsonaro in all polls, some of which even find the elections can be decided in the first round.

On his first day of the 48-tour to the place where his roots are, Lula also pledged to eradicate illegal mining in indigenous reserves (known as garimpo), reduce the high rates of deforestation in the Amazon basin, and cut down the list of pesticides allowed for agrifood production.

“I want you to know that we are going to change this country,” said Lula, who insisted that the policies implemented during his two previous consecutive terms in office (2003-2010) had taken “more than 30 million Brazilians out of absolute poverty.”

He also pointed out that he has “a cause” and that “nothing in this world” will make him give up his main political objective, which is “to reconquer Brazil for the Brazilian people.”

“I am coming back because I believe that this country needs you and we are the spokespeople for you. It only makes sense to win, if we do not forget that the poor people were not born to be poor all their lives,” he insisted before his supporters.

As his supporters dubbed him “the warrior of the Brazilian people,” the leftwing candidate accused Bolsonaro of wanting to “create chaos” and sow “distrust” with his campaign against the country's electronic voting system. In a Twitter posting earlier this week, Lula said Bolsonaro sought to “create confusion in the style of Trump in the US” to deceive the people and then “justify any nonsense.”

Folha de S. Paulo, one of Brazil's leading newspapers, also published an editorial that said Bolsonaro was a coup monger who was “negotiating with Congress” his “freedom to attack democracy” and called on political leaders to stand up to it.

”It is a pity that Brazil does not have a president who calls 50 ambassadors to talk about something that interests the country. (...) Instead, he tells lies against our democracy,” Lula tweeted shortly after Bolsonaro's meeting with ambassadors Monday evening.