Without evidence, Lula says he has “conviction” that Bolsonaro engineered January 8

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) says he is “convinced” that former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and allies would have been responsible for the acts of January 8, which culminated in the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasilia. The statement was given in an interview published in the Spanish newspaper El País this Thursday (27) without presenting any evidence to prove the allegation.

Lula said that he had been expecting a coup attempt since the day of his inauguration, on January 1, and that it might not have happened at the time because there were “too many people”. On Wednesday (26), Bolsonaro testified to the Federal Police and ruled out any relationship with the acts and that not having been re-elected in 2022 is “a page turned”.

“I have no doubt that he attempted a coup. This was going to happen from the first day of my inauguration, but as there were a lot of people, I waited a week. I saw it all on television, they attacked the Planalto Palace, there was neglect by those who were watching and they entered the National Congress, the STF and the Palace. Now there are people in jail. We also look for who financed, who paid, for example, the buses they came on. Now Brasilia’s Secretary of Security is under arrest. We are convinced that everything was organized by Bolsonaro and his team, ”he said.

Lula claimed that the mistrust takes into account the lawsuits against the former president that are still pending in court and the government’s role in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. He also commented on the boos and protests that he was the target of opposition deputies during his speech at the Assembly of the Republic in Portugal, on Tuesday (25), and of members of the Ukrainian community in the country.

For the president, there is a crisis involving the right not only in Brazil, but “it also exists in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany”. “Spain knows what authoritarianism is. In Portugal there were only eight people making noise that day”, he added. Despite claiming that only eight people made “noise” that day, Lula did not have his speech applauded by a larger number of parliamentarians, according to images from the transmission of the Assembly of the Republic.

Outside the Assembly, a crowd of people joined deputies from the Chega party to protest against Lula’s presence in Portugal, with posters expressing phrases such as “no more corruption” and “a thief’s place is in prison”, in addition to Ukraine flags.

The president also commented that he is not thinking about re-election, as his partner in the United States, Joe Biden, already announced this week. “I can’t think about that right now. It’s only been four months since I started my term.”

Environmental barriers to trade with the EU

During his visit to Spain this Tuesday (25th) and Wednesday (26th), Lula said that he hopes that the European Union will resolve the pending issues that still hang over the Mercosur agreement with the presidency of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez in the bloc, in the second half of the year. . Sánchez confirmed that talks could move forward.

However, the European Parliament recently approved a rule that prohibits the sale of products from deforested areas. On the other hand, Brazilian senator Zequinha Marinho (PL-PA) filed a bill that creates a kind of “reciprocity” to the determination imposed by European countries.

Lula was questioned about the legislation, and said that the biggest current obstacle is with France, which “does not want to make concessions in agriculture”. But he avoided making the decision controversial, saying only that he is committed to prohibiting deforestation and burning.

“No tree should be felled in Brazil because it is not necessary: ​​Brazil is already the biggest producer of animal protein. It is important to improve our agricultural production to feed our people and the people of other countries, but, above all, to take care of the environment, of indigenous lands. It is a moral, ethical, political and environmental obligation”, he said in the interview.

Finally, Lula commented on the difficulty of finding a way out of the war in Ukraine and emphasized that he condemns Russia, which “does not have the right to invade Ukrainian territory, they are wrong.” The opinion on the conflict in Eastern Europe has been changing in recent weeks after the president stated, on his trip to China, that the two countries would be responsible.