Lula puts a statue of Christ targeted by Lava Jato in his office – 07/24/2023 – Power

President Lula (PT) hung in his office at the Planalto Palace a statue of Jesus Christ, who was there in his first terms and was even the target of Operation Lava Jato.

The PT’s photographs were published on the Planalto Flickr account.

On January 10, the newly sworn-in Chief Executive recorded a video for his social networks with the statue, in which he said he would bring it to his office once again.

“I think that the time it was kept, the wood was losing its color. So many years, I discover that my Christ was in the Museum of the Republic, so I sent for it and I’m going to put it here, again, where it always stayed, helping me to govern this country”, said Lula at the time.

The image was removed by the cabinet by its ally, former president Dilma Rousseff (PT). In 2016, the Federal Police found a safe at Banco do Brasil associated with Lula, when he was the target of a Lava Jato operation.

At the time, the prosecutor in the case, now impeached deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) believed it to be a statue stolen by the PT and authored by Aleijadinho, the famous Minas Gerais artist of the 18th century. None of the information was correct.

The president is a Christian, but he was the target of a series of fake news of this nature during the election campaign. Like, for example, that he would close down churches if elected.

Lula’s greatest difficulty in 2022 was among evangelicals, a sector very close to then-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

This year, as shown by the Sheet, the petista has sought to make political gestures and release funds at the beginning of his term to care for agribusiness, military and evangelicals, sectors that represent the pillars of support of his predecessor.

In the case of religious, the government supported in the negotiation of the tax reform the expansion of tax immunity of churches against the collection of federal, state and municipal taxes (including IPTU).

Deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), who was once leader of the evangelical group and had been criticizing the president’s attitude towards the faithful, says that the government’s support for the reform amendment is an important signal.

Behind the scenes, Lula is still evaluating whether to make another important nod to evangelicals with the nomination of the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) in October, in the vacancy of Minister Rosa Weber. Lula sent him as a representative for the March for Jesus, in early June.