Lula victory will touch all continents – M’membe
By Fanny Kalonda
SOCIALIST Party president Fred M’membe says Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s electoral victory over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro will touch all continents.
The 76-year-old politician’s win represents the return of the left into power in Brazil, and concludes a triumphant personal comeback for Lula, after a series of corruption allegations led to his imprisonment for 580 days. The sentences were later annulled by the Supreme Court, clearing his path to run for reelection.
In a message of congratulations following Sunday run-off elections in Brazil, Dr M’membe said Lula’s win would reshape Latin America and alter the balance of forces in the whole world.
“We are very delighted with the victory of President Lula, PT (Workers Party) and MST (Landless Workers Movement) over the extreme right wing forces represented by Bolsonaro. It’s a great victory whose ripples will touch all continents. It will help remake, reshape Latin America and alter the balance of forces in the whole world,” said Dr M’membe. “Today is not for many words, it is for celebration, rejoicing. For all that life has delt us, this is a big day, a happy day for us.
Great thanks to President Lula and all who exerted their efforts to make this victory possible. Congratulations dear Comrades!”
And President Hakainde Hichilema said he looks forward to “working together and enhance Zambia-Brazil relations”.
“Congratulations to Inacio Lula da Silva on being elected President of Brazil,” tweeted President Hichilema. “Looking forward to working together and enhance Zambia-Brazil relations and strengthen the partnership between our two nations.”
Lula received more than 60 million votes, the most in Brazilian history, breaking his own record from 2006.
This isn’t a victory of mine or the Workers’ Party… It’s the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious,” Lula told a cheering crowd of supporters in Sao Paulo on Sunday night.
The President-elect acknowledged that following such a tight race a challenge to his future mandate will be “immense,” and stressed that “it is necessary to rebuild the very soul of this country, recover generosity, solidarity, respect for differences and love for others.”
After a divisive campaign which saw two bitter rivals on opposite sides of the political spectrum go head to head, Lula won 50.9 per cent of the votes.
It was enough to beat Bolsonaro, whose supporters had been confident of victory.
According to BBC, it is a stunning comeback for a politician who could not run in the last presidential election in 2018 because he was in jail and banned from standing for office.
He had been found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction firm in return for contracts with Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.
Lula spent 580 days in jail before his conviction was annulled and he returned to the political fray.
“They tried to bury me alive and here I am,” he said, kicking off his victory speech.
He struck a conciliatory tone, saying he would govern for all Brazilians and not just those who voted for him.
“This country needs peace and unity. This population doesn’t want to fight anymore,” he said. “Starting on January 1, 2023, I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me. There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation.
Lula is a leftist former metal worker who ruled Brazil from from 2003-2010. His victory is the latest in a political wave across Latin America, with wins by left-leaning politicians in Argentina, Colombia and Chile.
Lula will take the reins of a country plagued by gross inequality that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Approximately 9.6 million people fell under the poverty line between 2019 and 2021, and literacy and school attendance rates have fallen. He will also be faced with a deeply fractured nation and urgent environmental issues, including rampant deforestation in the Amazon.