Dirceu avoids spotlight after being celebrated by lulistas – 01/17/2023 – Politics

Former Minister José Dirceu, 76, was revered as a “commander” by parliamentarians, family members of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and the PT’s assistants at the presidential inauguration celebrations at the beginning of the month, although he remains far from the spotlight this beginning of government.

His son and political heir, however, federal deputy Zeca Dirceu (PT-PR), was elevated to the post of leader of the party in the Chamber in the first week of the new administration.

One of the founders of the PT, Dirceu was one of the most celebrated during the New Year’s Eve night hosted by the criminalist Antônio Carlos de Almeida de Castro, known as Kakay, on December 31st.

In a celebration that brought together members of the team of the third Lula administration, including ministers, Dirceu posed for photos with guests and expressed his opinion on the political scenario.

Speaking minutes before the turn of the year, the host described Dirceu as the greatest politician in the history of Brazil. Lula was portrayed as a different person in the world. Kakay was effusively applauded.

Lula’s firstborn, Lurian Cordeiro Lula da Silva told Dirceu at the party a scene from the flight he traveled from Salvador to Brasília.

On a plane full of PT supporters, a lone Bolsonarist tried to provoke them, saying, shouting, that Dirceu would return.

“I replied: ‘Yay! Come back, Commander”’, Lurian told him, between laughs.

Lurian was with Dirceu after spending New Year’s Eve with Lula’s father and other family members, at a hotel in the central area of ​​Brasília.

Even surrounded by praise, Dirceu spent New Year’s Eve repeating that he would not return to the political front. He promised to stay in the rear.

“I have 40 years of conviction”, he justified, alluding to the two ongoing processes at the STJ (Superior Court of Justice).

Dirceu’s submergence is part of his defense strategy, but it also pleases Lula. The monthly allowance process —until today a brand that generates wear and tear for PT members— had Dirceu as one of its main symbols.

The former minister was not invited to Lula’s inauguration ceremonies. According to friends, he didn’t want to go either.

On January 1st, he walked along the Esplanada and posed for selfies alongside leftist militants.

Two days earlier, the former minister hosted a lunch that brought together parliamentarians, ministers and state leaders, as well as Lula’s children. Guests were discouraged from taking pictures.

Throughout the presidential race, Dirceu dedicated himself to an articulation parallel to Lula’s official campaign. He had meetings with politicians of different ideological backgrounds to preach supra-party unity against the re-election of then-President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The list of interlocutors included old opponents of the PT, such as former senator and former president of the defunct PFL Jorge Bornhausen (SC); and former minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDB), with whom he is a friend.

Also in January 2022, Dirceu told the then governor and now minister Renan Filho (MDB) that, to defeat Bolsonaro, Lula would need to be broader than the PT and wave the idea of ​​a “government without rancor”.

On the same trip to Paraná, he met opponents such as Governor Ratinho Junior (PSD).

In his wanderings, Dirceu emphasized that he did not have a delegation from Lula for political talks. But, according to allies, he and Lula exchange views on the political situation, in some cases through emissaries.

On the last 5th, his son Zeca was chosen for the party leadership in an articulation of the internal current CNB (Building a New Brazil), majority wing within the PT. The federal deputy was re-elected for his fourth term in the Chamber of Deputies.

A strong man in the first Lula administration, Dirceu left the Chief of Staff in 2005 after denouncing his involvement in the monthly allowance.

In 2012, he was sentenced by the STF (Federal Supreme Court) to more than seven years in prison, a sentence that was extinguished in 2015. He spent one year in jail.

In August 2015, he was arrested preventively by order of the then judge Sergio Moro, now a senator elected by União Brasil-PR.

In 2016, Moro sentenced Dirceu for the first time to 20 years and 10 months in prison. In 2017, the then judge sentenced the petista for the second time. Penalty: 11 years and three months in prison.

Two months later, the STF granted habeas corpus allowing him to await the judgment of the appeals in freedom. In May 2018, he was denied an appeal and was arrested again. In June of that year, the STF again granted habeas corpus for Dirceu to await trial in freedom.

In May 2019, the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region decided that the PT member should serve a sentence of eight years and ten months for the corruption case involving Petrobras, within the scope of Lava Jato. He was released in November of that same year and is awaiting trial on appeals.