Lula begins series of trips around the country in PT strongholds – 01/17/2024 – Power

President Lula (PT) begins this Thursday (17) a series of trips across Brazil with an eye on this year’s municipal election. The PT member decided to start the domestic tour of PT’s electoral strongholds: Bahia, Pernambuco and Ceará.

The president himself had already stated in recent months that he would “run Brazil” in 2024, after prioritizing international agendas in his first year in office. The trips take place at a strategic political moment, in which the PT seeks to regain strength in municipal elections while working to prevent the advance of Bolsonarists.

After a disappointing performance in 2020, when it did not elect any capital mayor, the PT seeks to take advantage of Lula’s prestige to regain space in the municipalities and thus build the bases of alliances for the presidential election, in October 2026.

The PT member will begin his trips prioritizing the Northeast region, which massively gave votes to his campaign in 2022.

The first landing will be in Bahia, one of the states visited most in 2023 and which, until the year before last, was governed by minister Rui Costa (Casa Civil).

Furthermore, Lula must have commitments with the military in this first sequence of trips, in a gesture to the barracks after the relationship strained at the beginning of the government. The potential for friction with the Armed Forces resurfaced last week, with ceremonies to remember the coup acts of January 8th. Minister José Múcio (Defense), who is from Recife, will accompany Lula on the two-day trip.

On Thursday morning, Lula participates in the ceremony to implement the Aerospace Technology Park in Salvador. According to the government, it is a place dedicated to promoting advanced research and innovation in the aerospace field.

The project was conceived by the Ministry of Defense, the Air Force Command, the Bahian government and Senai Cimatec, which will manage the unit.

Still on Thursday afternoon, Lula leaves for Pernambuco, where he will stay until Friday. He will participate in the investment resumption ceremony at the Abreu e Lima refinery, in Ipojuca (PE).

A good part of the PT member’s itinerary this year will involve the inaugurations of works and projects under the New PAC (Acceleration and Growth Program), such as the Petrobras refinery.

The following day, in the morning, he will participate in the ceremony to hand over the position of the Northeast Military Command, in Recife. On that occasion, General Kleber Vasconcellos will hand over command to General Maurílio Ribeiro.

Afterwards, Lula will be at the signing ceremony of the Term of Commitment for the construction of the Sergeants’ School, in the same location.

Lula is also going to Ceará on the same day, to lay the foundation stone for the ITA (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica) campus at the Fortaleza air base.

According to palace assistants, the idea is to next visit Santa Catarina and Minas Gerais, two states that Lula has not yet been to since he began his third term. In March, the president should visit Piauí, the state that gave him the highest percentage of votes in the election against Jair Bolsonaro (76.8%).

Minas was key to his victory in 2022 and is governed by a potential opponent in the next presidential race, Romeu Zema (Novo). That’s why the PT member has been asked by allies to make a visit. Even the president of Congress, senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), asked the president to prioritize the state.

With 20 million inhabitants, it is the second largest electoral college in the country. Furthermore, the state is considered a mirror of the national election result.

Lula even announced that he would go to Minas to launch works on the New PAC and launched a provocation against Zema and the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), another potential opponent. The PT member said, in August, that he would hold events in these states with or without the presence of the governors.

Santa Catarina is governed by Bolsonarist Jorginho Mello (PL). In the second round, 69.7% of voters in the state voted for Bolsonaro.

During his first year in office, Lula received criticism for prioritizing international travel even in times of crisis in the country — the most emblematic case was the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, in September.

In addition to Minas and Santa Catarina, Lula has not yet fulfilled any official agenda in six other states: Acre, Alagoas, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondônia and Tocantins.

On the other hand, the PT member visited three states five times: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Bahia.

In his third term, the PT member listed Brazil’s reinsertion on the global geopolitical board as one of his priorities when taking office. Therefore, he completed an intense schedule abroad, both for bilateral meetings and to participate in international summits and forums.

The PT member made 15 trips abroad, to a total of 24 countries. He was in the United States, China, France, Argentina and Angola, among others. He also participated in summits, such as the G20 (in India), the BRICS (in South Africa) and COP28, the United Nations climate change conference (in the United Arab Emirates).

In his last weekly live, before Christmas, Lula reinforced the plan to focus on national travel in 2024.

“I traveled a lot abroad in 2023, but next year, whoever misses Lulinha, get ready, because Janja and I are going to travel around this country. I’m going to be there a lot, because the country needs encouragement, motivation”, he said.