The former president, better known as Lula, neither confirmed nor denied the overwhelming speculation that could now challenge Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential race as a left-wing Labor Party candidate, saying only that it was “too soon “to participate in this discussion.
“When 2022 arrives, the party will discuss whether we have a candidate or whether we are acting on a broad front,” he said.
“My head doesn’t have time to think about candidacy in 2022,” he added. “We have a lot to do before we talk about ourselves.”
Speaking Wednesday at the ABC Metalworkers Union in São Bernardo do Campo, the same place where he spoke to supporters moments before entering prison, da Silva hailed the sentence in recognition “that I have never committed any crime. .. I never had any involvement of mine with Petrobras “.
According to the judge’s statement, the judicial procedure in da Silva’s case was flawed from the beginning because the Federal Court of Curitiba, which ruled on his sentence, had no jurisdiction. “With this decision, all the sentences handed down by the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba are declared null and void,” said the statement from Fachin’s office, which ordered that two cases be tried again in which da Silva was convicted in court. Federal of Brasilia.
What happens next is up to the wider Supreme Court. According to CNN Brazil, the country’s attorney general has pledged to appeal Fachin’s ruling. Even if the Supreme Court upheld it, da Silva could still be convicted again in a new trial. Meanwhile, a separate Supreme Court vote this week could also see the cases expelled.
For now, however, the way has been paved for the former president to return to politics, potentially transforming the 2022 election landscape. If Da Silva ran for president next year, it would be difficult for a centrist candidate to emerge and it would probably push Bolsonaro to pursue more populist policies in hopes of consolidating his base.
“Don’t be afraid of me, I am radical because I want to go to the root of this country’s problems,” da Silva said Wednesday.
Bolsonaro, the so-called “Trump of the tropics,” faces fierce criticism for his treatment of the pandemic. The country on Tuesday reported a maximum death toll for Covid-19, with 1,972 new fatalities in 24 hours bringing the total to 268,370.
Speaking to the press on Monday, Bolsonaro said he hoped Brazil’s Supreme Court would finally reverse the decision and reinstate Da Silva’s convictions. He added that he did not believe Brazilians would want a presidential candidate like da Silva in 2022.
When she left office in 2011 after two terms, she obtained a 90% approval rating, although her hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, was accused of violating budget laws during her second term. mandate, after its approval rating plummeted amid the corruption scandal that ravaged the Labor Party. .
The Curitiba court that originally convicted Da Silva – headed by Sergio Moro, later appointed justice minister by Bolsonaro – found that the former president benefited from the renovation of a triplex in a beach town near Sao Paulo by the construction company OAS, deeply involved in the operation of bribery of Petrobras.
The charges were related to bribes of 3.7 million reais ($ 1.1 million) received from the OAS through the beachfront apartment. In return, Da Silva helped the builder acquire contracts from the oil company, prosecutors said, charges he has denied for a long time.
Reports provided by CNN’s Shasta Darlington in Sao Paulo, Vasco Cotovio in London and Tatiana Arias and Hira Humayun in Atlanta.