Lula goes down the Planalto ramp and defends public buildings without bars

Lula government

Guardrails were removed by order of the president

Brasilia DF) – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva went to check closely the entrance to the Planalto Palace without movable guardrails, after almost ten years. By surprise, Lula walked down the ramp of the government headquarters, this Wednesday afternoon (10), just over five months after taking the opposite route to kick off his third in-person mandate. Hours earlier, the Presidency of the Republic had removed the guardrails surrounding the Planalto Palace.

“What I think is that Brazil does not need to be surrounded by bars. Leave it free for democracy, it doesn’t need walls,” Lula told journalists as he walked along the ramp. He was accompanied by his wife Janja Lula da Silva, and by the Minister of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic (Secom), Paulo Pimenta.

The protective equipment had been in place at least since 2013, when thousands of Brazilians took to the streets in violent protests in several cities across the country, in the so-called Jornadas de Junho.

The railings remained throughout the following years, covering the period of protests during the process of impeachment of the then president Dilma Rousseff, the more than two years of Michel Temer’s government and the four years of the Jair Bolsonaro administration, in addition to the episode of the attempted coup d’état organized by far-right Bolsonarist militants, on January 8 of this year.

President Lula went personally to inspect the removal of the bars that surrounded the Planalto Palace – Ricardo Stuckert/PR

Lula also determined the removal of the concrete blocks positioned on the road that gives access to the official residences of the president and vice president, respectively the Palácio da Alvorada and the Palácio do Jaburu, which are located in a slightly more isolated area, but close to Praça dos Three Powers.

“I’m going to take down that wall in front of the Palace [da Alvorada]”, said Lula, recalling that, throughout his eight years in office, he has never suffered protests in front of his official residence. “If I want to surround the people and not allow them to protest, democracy is meaningless,” she argued.

After checking the Planalto Palace without bars, the president even greeted supporters who were there and took a picture with them. First Lady Janja was also in great demand among the popular, especially women.

According to minister Paulo Pimenta, the withdrawal is symbolic and took place at the request of the president in view of the scenario that the country is experiencing. “A moment of unity and reconstruction cannot have a lot of railings,” Pimenta told reporters earlier.

According to him, however, on specific occasions, such as ceremonies and parades, the mobile railings may be temporarily replaced.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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