Lula’s speeches to the left’s bubble confuse the center – 05/30/2023 – Politics

President Lula’s (PT) set of nods to the left-wing public, reinforced this Monday (29) with the declaration that the dictatorship in Venezuela would be a narrative, is defended by PT leaders, but read in different ways by politicians of parties closer to the center.

For petistas heard by the report, there is no deliberate strategy by the president to concentrate his communication on his voter bubble, but allied parties outside the left see consequences – such as worsening polarization and greater difficulty for the government with a Congress that is right-wing in its opinion. majority.

Behind the scenes, even close allies of Lula claim that the president was wrong to exalt the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, instead of simply receiving him for a bilateral meeting.

The speech of support for Maduro, who traveled to Brasilia for a meeting between all the presidents of South America, adds to other statements by Lula that caused strangeness in sectors that joined him in the election to defeat Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

In January, for example, Lula called Michel Temer (MDB) a coup plotter, referring to the impeachment, and the former president countered, recommending that the PT govern “looking forward”.

After the imbroglio at Agrishow, a fair for the agricultural sector, Lula said that “fascists and denialists” did not want the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro (PSD), to go there.

Lula has also stated that Lava Jato was orchestrated with the US Department of Justice to destroy Brazilian contractors and insinuated that an attack plan unveiled by the Federal Police would be a frame by Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR).

Lula’s statement on Venezuela was criticized by other presidents, such as center-right Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou of Uruguay and leftist Gabriel Boric of Chile. On social media, a number of Bolsonaristas, such as federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), exploited the episode to reinforce their opposition to the president.

Presenter Luciano Huck reacted to Lula and published on Twitter that the situation in the neighboring country “is not just a narrative”. “It’s real and has nothing to do with democracy.” The PCO (Partido da Causa Operária) went to the networks to defend the president’s gesture.

For representatives of parties closer to the center heard by the report, the PT government tries to dialogue with the left and the right, with Lula being the interlocutor of the progressive camp, while the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), is in charge of to build bridges with the financial market and sectors more averse to the party.

The strategy, however, can both garner support on both fronts and alienate the president with one side or the other.

In the PSB, Lula’s main ally in the election, there is no doubt that Venezuela is a dictatorship, as stated by the party’s president, Carlos Siqueira, in the column Panel, of the Sheet. He also criticized Lula’s special treatment of Maduro: “It didn’t have to go that far.”

There are, among center-right politicians, those who minimize the practical effects of Lula’s statements, pointing out that his base in Congress moves in a pragmatic and physiological way – and not ideologically.

Government members also claim that Lula’s speeches to the left are isolated and that his political line is to unify the country and resume growth.

“It is Lula’s way of facing differences, not hiding them. He is proposing a debate, people can agree or not. He is saying that he respects the culture that exists in Venezuela, like that of the USA, like that of China” , says Vagner Freitas, president of Sesi and former president of CUT, a friend of the president.

Freitas says that Maduro’s presence would lead to attacks on Lula anyway and that the PT’s speeches do not distance the center. “These are all speeches and points that were in the government program. [Geraldo] Alckmin was at the MST fair. Lula’s agenda is left-wing, with an appreciation of the minimum wage, a reduction in gasoline, incentives for popular cars”, he adds.

Vice-president of União Brasil, former deputy Junior Bozzella sees, however, a negative effect. “From a practical point of view, it does not have a great impact or shock. Also because, unlike Bolsonaro, Lula speaks to the left, but does not challenge democracy. However, this speech [da Venezuela] gives an argument and a platform for sealers. He could try to avoid it, it’s not smart to go to extremes to maintain polarization, which is something that attacks democracy “, he says.

On the other hand, right-wing parliamentarians privately assert that talking to the bubble hinders Lula both in governing and in re-electing himself – or appointing a successor.

Federal deputy Jilmar Tatto (PT-SP), the party’s Communications secretary, says there is no contradiction between Lula’s nods to the left and his electoral agenda of unity and pacification, which had the support of the center.

“Lula was with Maduro, but he was at Fiesp last week. What he wants is for Brazil to dialogue with all countries. The election is over, Lula is not concerned about talking to the bubble”, says Tatto, stressing that the economy matters more to voters than the president’s speech.

Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira (PT) states that “in politics, actions are worth more”. “What we want is to integrate Latin America.”

“The people chose a candidate who has opinions, but who is not disuniting the country”, says deputy Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP), rejecting the comparison between Bolsonaro’s method of keeping his radical base always mobilized and Lula’s speeches to the left.

“Bolsonaro encouraged fighting and conflict. Lula is not fighting with anyone, he is passing on his opinion. What does this change in the country? In Congress? Nothing”, he completes.

Professor Flavia Loss Araujo, professor at the School of Sociology and Politics Foundation in São Paulo, states that, from the point of Brazilian foreign policy, taking Venezuela out of isolation is correct, although the intensity of Lula’s gesture to Maduro can be questioned. Internally, she sees the possibility of negative electoral implications.

“Foreign policy is traditionally not something that moves the electorate or the base in Congress, but it is a subject that is growing in importance. Few analysts and journalists praised Lula’s speech. It could have electoral effects, because the extreme right will use these photos and will talk about Venezuela, seen as a great enemy, as Cuba was during the dictatorship”, says the teacher.

Collaborated with Matheus Tupina

Lula’s statements that distance him from the center

“Narratives” in Venezuela
On Tuesday (29), alongside Nicolás Maduro, Lula called the view that Venezuela has become an authoritarian regime a “narrative”, adding that he and Celso Amorim, his special advisor, seek to explain to the world the real situation Venezuelan

Ilation against Moro
On March 23, after the Federal Police launched an operation disarming a plan by the PCC criminal faction to attack Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), the president insinuated that the threat would be a “framework” by Moro

Fear scammer, once again
At the end of January, the PT called former President Michel Temer (MDB) a coup leader, referring to the rise of the emedebist to the Planalto after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT), in a speech at the City Hall of Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital. Temer countered, recommending that Lula govern “looking forward”

Agro fascist
In May, the current representative echoed the imbroglio involving Agrishow and the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro (PSD), disinvited from the event in order not to eventually cross paths with Jair Bolsonaro (PL). He said that “Fascists and denialists didn’t want him to go”, and claimed to go to another agro fair, in Bahia, to “make the bad characters of São Paulo envy”.