The Year of Lula

It has been a year since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva got into power in Brazil as a new opportunity to restore energy, and many challenges to repair a hurt, flawed, depressed nation greatly affected by the predecessor government of Jair Bolsonaro, and with a burden very heavy, perhaps, for an older Lula who must work hard to clean all that dirt piled up by previous administrations.

Since his electoral promise, Lula tried to put his country back on the world map as if it did not exist, as if it had been on pause over the course of all these years. And it’s true, for a long time from Brazil we did not receive anything positive, but rather information from the elites, about the social disaster and the consequences of climate change; it was a bit silenced, and now it’s trying to emerge from the mist and become a great state again, thought for the majority.

Of course, the challenge is huge. It’s very difficult to administer a country that large, therefore, it will take a bit more to rebuild it, rescue social projects that in the past provided Brazilians with new sources of employment and education, and create others that motivate the masses. Lula must study what the most prevailing needs are, because, this is a different panorama than yesterday.

But there we see him taking steps, strengthening himself with new alliances, recovering an international space where he was no longer a protagonist. Let’s remember Lula this year seeking to restore trust in the economic bloc of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), or in the United Nations Security Council and the Group of Twenty, the main economic-financial organization in the world thanks to the participation of the most powerful countries; he also highlighted the importance of the BRICS group and the creation of a common currency as an alternative to the US dollar.

Even the major media have to recognize that Brazil's financial situation is different, and this is evident not only because the minimum wage increased, for example, but in the competences proven in spheres like agriculture, in controlling inflation until it’s located at the lowest since 2019, the decrease in unemployment and interest rates.

Lula works hard to raise the national and domestic economy, to unite his fellow citizens, to restore an inclusive social state, and to reduce insecurity rates. He tries to banish strong words like hunger and misery with policies designed not only to identify deficiencies but to catalog them and offer them an almost personalized response, but it’s a difficult, slow process.

Furthermore, all this while proposing justice for political and even environmental damages by mitigating deforestation and illegal mining in the Amazon. Lula strives to give a voice to those who need it with special attention to essential sectors like education, health, housing; and strives to take advantage of the giant potential of a country rich in resources and with an enviable diversity that could make Brazil the territory with the greatest progress in South America.

It continues to be a polarized nation, with a strong political campaign against him, but he counts on the popular support. However, this is a common scenario, no president in the world has absolute support - especially one veering to the left - and learns to deal with the opposition and its power against every action he makes, in addition to the pressure from the outside, which is also critical.

After a shaky start due to the attempted coup d'état by Bolsonaro sympathizers, Lula's government shows economic and social progress, and is committed to an active foreign policy agenda that is already paying off, little by little, in contrast to precedent administrations.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff