Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, favorite to win in the October elections, promised this Thursday that if he wins in the elections he will facilitate corruption investigations, while he once again criticized the Lava Jato operation, which led him to prison for 580 days.
“Corruption only appears when one allows it to be investigated and governs in a republican way. In the face of any hypothesis of crime, no matter how minor, that person will be investigated, punished or acquitted,” Lula declared in an interview with the channel Balloon.
The leader of the Workers’ Party, who was prevented by justice from participating in the 2018 elections after being sentenced in the second instance, was imprisoned for 580 days for corruption, but the Supreme Court annulled the processes considering that there was an error procedural.
“I could have chosen a prosecutor to file the processes or a police chief controlled by me and I did not do it or make a hundred-year secrecy decree for me and my children,” Lula stressed. The comments were made in a veiled reference to President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking his re-election and whom he accused of “looking like a fool in court.”
“I don’t want friends in the Public Ministry or in the Federal Police. I find it wonderful to denounce corruption », he added.
Lula, who in voting intention polls has an advantage of between ten and fifteen percentage points over the current president, criticized the performance and intervention of the head of state in institutions that fight corruption.
historical freedom
“The Federal Police had the greatest freedom in history in my government,” said Lula, for whom Operation Lava-Jato, which uncovered a corruption scandal in the state oil company Petrobras and large construction companies, “exceeded the limit when he entered politics.
In the 40 minutes interview, the third of the news with the candidates for the presidency, Lula defended the alternation in power, although, when questioned, he avoided criticizing the “dictatorships” in countries friendly to the leftist Workers’ Party (PT). in Latin America.
«For a democrat it is necessary to respect the self-determination of peoples. Each country takes care of its own nose, but no one is essential or irreplaceable », he stressed.
«Credibility, predictability and stability»
“I am favorable to the rotation, to the alternation of power, it does not matter if it has one of the left, then another of the right or one of the center,” added the former president, who also promised that his eventual victory “Brazil will be a friend of all world”.
The “three magic words” of his government, Lula said, will be: “credibility, predictability and stability.”
As for the polarization of the current campaign, he considered that it is “healthy and stimulating”, although he warned that if he comes to power again, he will dialogue with the entire Parliament and will not play the role of Bolsonaro’s “fool of the court”. , who, in his opinion, “does not command anything, does not take care of the budget and is a hostage of the National Congress.”
During the first interview with Bolsonaro on the same channel, cacerolazos were heard protesting Lula in several cities of the country, such as those recorded on social networks in some neighborhoods of Sao Paulo (southeast), Camboriu (south) and Salvador and Recife (northeast). .
