Brazil's Lula courts centrists at unofficial campaign launch
At the effective launch of his campaign on Saturday, Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva aimed to lure centrists into his coalition to strengthen his bid to unseat incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
“We want to unite democrats of all origins and colors to face and beat the totalitarian threat, the hatred,” da Silva told thousands of supporters of his Workers’ Party, members of unions and political allies who gathered in São Paulo.
“We want to come back so no one ever again dares to challenge our democracy and so fascism returns to the gutters of history, which it should never have left,” the former president added.
“To end this crisis and grow, Brazil needs to be a normal country again.”
The event was technically the launch of da Silva’s pre-campaign, as the law doesn’t permit people to formally declare themselves candidates before Aug. 5.
The leftist, 76, leads all polls to return to the job he held from 2003 to 2010 - but his sizeable advantage against the far-right Bolsonaro in the October election has been narrowing in recent weeks, according to some surveys.
At: https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-covid-business-health-campaigns-83819f918df530cc887b0d2c95ecae8e
