Deputies file impeachment request against Lula for talks about democracy

A group of deputies led by Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP) filed this Monday (3) an impeachment request against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) for a speech in which he relativized the concept of democracy in Venezuela. The statement was given last week during an interview with a radio station in Rio Grande do Sul.

“I filed an impeachment request for his speeches relativizing democracy and attacking patriotism. Crime of responsibility that we will not admit”, said Bilynskyj on a social network.

The request is also signed by 26 other deputies, including Carla Zambelli (PL-SP), Bia Kicis (PL-MG), Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-AL).

Less than seven months into his government, Lula has already accumulated at least eight requests for impeachment and more than a hundred actions before the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and requests for information in Congress. In the interview that generated the new request, the president was asked why the current government avoids considering Venezuela as a dictator.

“Let me tell you something, the concept of democracy is relative to you and me. I like democracy, because the democracy that made me reach the presidency of the Republic for the third time, ”she said.

Lula resumed bilateral relations with Venezuela at the end of May, when he received Nicolás Maduro with honors at the Planalto Palace. On the occasion of the visit, due to the Summit of South American Countries, the president defended the Venezuelan leader and said that a “narrative” was built about democracy in the country.

The petista still considered that “the most absurd thing in the world” is that people who defend democracy “deny that Maduro is president of Venezuela, having been elected by the people”.

Lula’s defense of Maduro was criticized by South American presidents during the summit, including Luis Lacalle Pou of Uruguay and Gabriel Boric of Chile. One of the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition and presidential pre-candidate, Henrique Capriles, considered Lula’s statements as a “slap in the face of millions of Venezuelans”.