Lula says that denial of the policy generated hatred and cites monster – 01/19/2023 – Politics

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Thursday (19) that Brazil has been taken over by hatred in recent years and that the main cause for this condition was the denial of politics.

Lula got emotional when commenting on the current political situation. He also criticized the emergence of a “rabid, fanatical extreme right” across the world and that this is a “new monster” that needs to be confronted.

“When I started talking to you, you even noticed that I stuttered a little because I was emotional about this meeting [com reitores]thrilled because it was unthinkable […] I’m 77 years old and I’ve never seen Brazil taken over by the hatred it was taken over”, said the president, at a moment when his voice broke.

Lula received deans of federal universities and federal institutes of education for a meeting at the Planalto Palace. On several occasions, when commenting on the education situation, he said that the country is leaving “dark” times.

The president stated that the growth of the extreme right is a worldwide phenomenon that needs to be confronted. He cited the example of Brazil, but refused to mention the name of former president Jair Bolsonaro, referring to him as “thing”.

“[O país] it was taken over by hatred because at some point this country had a lot of people who started to deny the policy. And when you deny politics, what happened in the United States with Trump happened. What happened in Brazil with the thing happens, I don’t want to say his name”, said the president.

“What happened in Hungary, Italy and what happened all over the world happens with the emergence of a fanatical, rabid extreme right, which hates everything that does not match what they think and is a new monster that we have to face and defeat,” he added.

Lula stated that the civilizing setback in Brazil culminated in the coup acts of January 8. On the occasion, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro advanced on the security forces and invaded the National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Federal Supreme Court.

“I think that Brazil did not deserve to have gone through this. We do not have the dimension of the setback that this country, in each school, in each place of work, in each place where people were used to a certain civilization. Things have changed in Brazil, to the point of happening what happened on the 8th, here in Brasilia,” he said.