Party in Bahia has Lula in the streets and motorcycle riders without Bolsonaro – 07/02/2023 – Politics

The celebrations of the 200 years of Independence of Brazil in Bahia this Sunday (2) had President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the streets of the old center of Salvador alongside supporters and a motorbike organized by Bolsonaristas without former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Lula, who was due to participate in a restricted Independence celebration ceremony later this Sunday afternoon, changed his agenda at the last minute and decided to participate in the popular procession, which has a path of about 3 km between Largo da Lapinha and Praça da See.

Participation in the party is pointed out by allies as a demonstration of the PT’s strength two days after Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) for electoral crimes and was ineligible for eight years.

This Saturday (1st), in Brasilia, Lula made his first demonstration on the condemnation of his opponent in the 2022 elections.

Lula’s presence at the popular festivities in Bahia also serves as a counterpoint to the official celebrations of the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil on September 7, 2022. The celebration was marked by tensions to coup threats by then President Bolsonaro.

In the streets of Salvador, Lula traveled along the procession in the back of a pickup truck alongside First Lady Janja and Bahia Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT). He participated for about an hour.

Further ahead, on the ground, came the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and Senator Jaques Wagner. Minister Margareth Menezes also toured the procession in a van.

The president did not participate in the ceremony of raising the flags of Brazil and Bahia alongside the governor and mayor of Salvador Bruno Reis (União Brasil).

But he joined the procession in Soledade, just after Lapinha, the starting point of the same journey made 200 years ago by the Brazilian troops of the Pacifying Army, who retaken the Bahian capital after the expulsion of the Portuguese on July 2, 1823.

The path taken is the same as last year, when amidst an atmosphere of electoral tension and concerns about his safety, the PT candidate walked for about a kilometer.

At the same time, a group of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro gathered at Farol da Barra, from where they will leave through the streets of Salvador on the “Motociata da Independência”. Unlike last year, Bolsonaro does not participate in the motorcycle tour.

The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Independence of Brazil in Bahia began with a fireworks display, which woke up residents of the central region of Salvador with the first rays of sunlight.

The population took to the streets of downtown Salvador from the early hours of the day, when a crowd was already gathering in Lapinha and the surrounding streets. Houses and commercial establishments were decorated with the colors of the flags of Brazil and Bahia along the entire route.

The ceremony began around 8:30 am, with the hoisting of flags by authorities and the playing of the National Anthem by the Navy music band. Afterwards, authorities placed flowers on the monument to Pierre Labatut, the general who organized and led the Brazilian troops.

After the official ceremony, the cars with the images of the caboclo and cabocla began the parade through the streets, being hailed as symbols of anonymous heroes and popular participation in the war.

The parade was accompanied by brass bands, percussion bands, civil society entities, unions and cultural groups. Among these were the Caboclos de Itaparica, a traditional group that exalts popular participation in one of the main battles of the War of Independence.

The Encourados de Pedrão, a group that represents the cowboys who used doublets as armor and fought in the Brazilian troops, once again did not participate in the procession in the bicentennial year.

Coming from the city of Pedrão, in the backlands of Bahia, Encourados started to parade in Salvador in 1999, bringing their horses to the city and opening the procession. Since 2012, the group stopped parading after lawsuits by entities linked to the animal cause.

The parade on the 2nd of July is the culmination of a civic calendar that begins on the 25th of June, in Cachoeira, a municipality in the Recôncavo region that resisted attacks by a gunboat led by Portuguese troops. Known as the “heroic city”, since 2007 it has become the capital of Bahia for one day a year.

On June 30, the Symbolic Fire of Independence leaves Cachoeira and travels through towns in the Reconcavo until it arrives on July 1 in the neighborhood of Pirajá, in Salvador. This year, a second symbolic fire ran through towns north of the Bahian capital that had their participation in the war recognized.

The highest civic date in Bahia, the 2nd of July celebrates the expulsion of the Portuguese from Salvador in 1823, almost ten months after Brazil’s independence.

Unlike most states, where independence took place without an armed struggle, in Bahia it was preceded by a war between troops allied with Portugal and troops made up of Brazilians, as was the case with the battles of Pirajá, Itaparica and Funil.

The expulsion of the Portuguese from Bahia, 200 years ago, was consolidated as the main milestone in the construction of national unity after Independence.