Lula called Bolsonaro a ‘demon’ and promised lower taxes for wage earners if he wins in Brazil

Source: Telam


The former president and opposition presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised on Tuesday to reduce taxes for wage earners and repudiated the economic policy of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, whom he called “a true demon” for trying to politically manipulate the faithful evangelists, by putting in his campaign for the elections on October 2 is marching with an act in Sao Bernardo do Campo, the industrial belt of Greater São Paulo.

In front of the Volkswagen car factory, the scene of his trade union struggle in the 1970s, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) announced that if he wins, one of his first measures will be raise the income tax floor paid by workerswhich has not been updated in the last ten years, assuring that the country is currently worse off than when he took office in 2003.

But part of his speech at the start of the presidential race was dedicated to refuting the evangelical religious profile that Bolsonaro wants to give his campaign, seeking with that segment, which is 30% of the population, to recover in the polls that give the PT leader a victory.

“He is trying to manipulate the good faith of evangelical men and women who go to church to talk about faith and spirituality and what he does is tell them lies about Lula, about Lula’s wife, about the workers, about the indigenous people and Afro-descendants”affirmed the former president in his speech, on a stage that was recreated to imitate the one he used in the 1970s when he led the workers in strikes against the military dictatorship.

In this context, he maintained that “if there is someone possessed by the devil, that is Bolsonaro”, after affirming that he is a “creator of lies and a denier” who “did not shed a tear for the orphans left by the pandemic”, with more than 670,000 deaths and a current average since July of 200 daily deaths from Covid-19.

Lula described Bolsonaro as “genocidal” and said that in Brazil “you have to distribute books instead of weapons”.

7th election campaign

Excited at the age of 76, Lula began his seventh electoral campaign.

He was a candidate and reached the ballot against Fernando Collor de Mello in 1989in the first free and direct elections since the end of the dictatorship (1964-1985), then lost to Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1994 Y 1998 and won in 2003 Y 2006after retiring to launch his dolphin Dilma Rousseff.

Lula was registered as a candidate in 2018but was proscribed by the electoral justice when he was arrested and convicted of corruption by former judge Sérgio Moro, something that allowed Bolsonaro to win.

In 2021, the Federal Supreme Court annulled the sentences and cases for bias in Lava Jato, an operation that the PT described as “lawfare”.

“I promise you that We are going to raise the income tax floor, to recover wages and jobs because this government never bothered to create jobs“, Lula assured the VW workers.

The former trade unionist recalled the strikes by metalworkers in the ABC industrial region of São Paulo and confessed that “he did not need to be a candidate” but that he accepted the proposal to “rebuild the country.”

“The situation now is worse than in 2002. Now protein is produced in Brazil for the whole world, but housewives here queue to receive bones before the butcher shops close,” said Lula, who gave an overview of the activity. industry and employment in Brazil based on data from the VW plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a symbol of São Paulo’s thriving economy.

According to the candidate, the factory produced 334,000 vehicles in 2012 and is currently manufacturing 141,000 units.

In 2003, Lula said, there were 13,857 workers at the factory, which rose to 14,164 in 2012 and fell to 7,931 today.

“Where did the other 8,000 employees go?” he asked.

Lula called Bolsonaro a ‘demon’ and promised lower taxes for wage earners if he wins in Brazil – La Jornada Web