Thousands of people have begun to gather this Sunday in the political heart of Brasilia for the inauguration as Brazilian president of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who assumes for the third time the power that he already exercised during two consecutive periods, between 2003 and 2010
Source: Efe
According to the forecasts, the official ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. GMT), when Lula will arrive at one end of the Esplanade of the Ministries, an avenue where all the public power buildings are located and where will concentrate the acts, for which some 300,000 people are expected.
He will then take a tour in a vehicle, weather permitting, a Rolls Royce “Silver Wraith” model without the top of the Brazilian Presidency, in which he will be accompanied by his wife, Rosângela “Janja” da Silva.
However, it is likely that he will parade in front of the crowd in a closed car, since so far the forecast for the time of the event calls for heavy rain, typical of this time in Brasilia.
The tour will end at the headquarters of Parliament, where Lula will be sworn in and will deliver his first speech as president in front of all the national political power and delegations from fifty countries, which will include twenty heads of State and Government.
Among them, the King of Spain and the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, as well as those of Germany and Portugal.
After that speech, he will go to the neighboring Planalto Palace, the seat of the Presidency, which he will enter via a ramp that leads from the street to the first floor of the building.
Then the crowd gathered in the Esplanade of the Ministries will address from the “parlatorio”, a kind of large pulpit outside the Planalto Palace, and will sign the investiture terms of the 37 ministers that his Government will have.
Before that second speech, he will receive the presidential sash in the “parlatorium”, which will not be given to him by the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, as required by protocol, because the far-right leader, who did not accept his electoral defeat, traveled to United States last Friday.
According to sources close to the new government, although it has not yet been confirmed, the idea is for Lula to receive the sash from a small group of people, who would immediately symbolize “the diversity of democratic Brazil.”
The official ceremonies will conclude with a reception that will be offered by Lula to the foreign delegations at the Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, located some five hundred meters from the seat of Government.
Coinciding with the reception, the so-called Festival of the Future will begin, a concert that will bring together fifty popular artists and whose curtain is expected to come down late Monday morning
