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He is the candidate of hope and renewal for some, a demon of the past and a symbol of corruption for others. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who became Brazil’s first left-wing president in 2002, hopes to return to the country’s top job after the presidential election, whose first round takes place on October 2. With the face-off against far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro becoming the most divisive election in years, our reporters Fanny Lothaire, Louise Raulais and Tim Vickery went to meet the generation that grew up under Lula.
A former metalworker and later trade union leader, Lula implemented social reforms during his two presidential terms: student scholarships, access to free healthcare, low-rent housing and agrarian reform. The lives of millions of Brazilians were transformed, with whole families able to join the middle class and consumer society.
But Lula’s imprisonment on corruption charges, between April 2018 and November 2019, lost him many activists and supporters. Some of Lula’s “heirs”, who once extolled him, today cannot help but criticise him. The 76-year-old candidate has even become the devil incarnate for some former activists in his Worker’s Party, who are now in favour of Bolsonaro. Others are torn between the desire to get Bolsonaro out of power at all costs and concern over giving a blank cheque to the man who has already served two terms.
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