MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No time for revenge, says Lula

Bolsonaro has been reported to be depressed and with a feverish condition

“It is possible to recover harmony between the powers, to recover the normality of coexistence between institutions,” said Brazil's president-elect.

Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this week that “it is possible to recover harmony among the powers, to recover the normality of coexistence among Brazilian institutions, which were violated by the not always recommendable language of some authorities linked to the government.”

Lula's remarks came less than two months ahead of his third inauguration during a visit to Lower House Speaker Arthur Lira, a former ally of the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. “The country needs dialogue and normality,” he wrote on Twitter alongside a video as he shook hands with Lira at the latter's residence in Brasília. Lula also met with Senate Speaker Rodrigo Pacheco.

The Workers' Party (PT) leader is already building Congressional consensus to fulfill his campaign promises on social policies starting Jan. 1, such as an increase in the minimum wage as well as maintaining the Auxilio Brasil aid plan at R$ 600 (US$ 118), for which a constitutional amendment to modify the spending ceiling of the 2023 budget is being evaluated.

Without a Congressional majority, Lula will probably need the help of Lira, a member of the so-called “Centrao” group of moderate politicians. “We cannot start 2023 without the Auxilio, without a real increase in the minimum wage. It was promised to the people at the ballot box,” PT Chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann said.

While in Brasília, Lula also met Federal Supreme Court (TSJ) Chief Justice Rosa Weber and Superior Electoral Court (TSE) Chief Justice Alexandre De Moraes, also a member of the TSJ.

“Brazil has no more time to keep fighting,” said the former president (2003-2010), who fought a bitter campaign with Bolsonaro, plagued by attacks and insults. “There is no time for revenge, anger, or hatred,” he added.

De Moraes also instructed the police to identify, in less than 48 hours, the Bolsonaristas who blocked the roads during the days after the Oct. 30 runoff, and during which seven reporters were attacked in Mato Grosso do Sul by demonstrators in front of a military barrack while requesting an uprising to undo what they claimed had been electoral fraud.

Hoffmann said earlier this week it was “not normal” that there were still pro-Bolsonaro protests calling for a military coup.

In the meantime, the once-vociferous Bolsonaro has withdrawn from social media and made only two short official appearances as the transition process was to begin. He has not even left his Alvorada Palace residence, according to local media reports. He has also been said to have “a feverish condition and seemed depressed.”