The American magazine Time advanced its cover this Wednesday (4), focused on an exclusive interview with Lula, who is preparing his “second act”, the second part of his political life.
Journalist Ciara Nugent, sent to São Paulo, says that he was “very charming” and spoke a lot about the past, but avoided detailing what he wants in economics: “You have to understand that, instead of asking what I’m going to do, it’s just look at what I’ve done”.
Nugent opens his text by highlighting how the former president left the first act behind:
“The genre we assign to a life story depends a lot on how it ends. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s life has already completed several dramatic arcs. First, the hero’s journey: a child born into poverty moves to the big city, rises to lead a union and then becomes the most popular president in the history of modern Brazil. Then tragedy strikes: a celebrated statesman is singled out in a staggering corruption scheme, sent to prison and forced to watch from the sidelines while rivals dismantle its legacy.”
“The endings don’t seem to fit, however. In April 2021, Brazil’s Supreme Court overturned the corruption convictions that had excluded Lula – as he is universally known – from politics in 2018, saying a biased judge in his case had compromised his right to a fair trial. The bombastic decision put Brazil on the path to a confrontation between the leftist Lula and the current far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, in the October 2022 elections.”
