“Brazil Must Be Present Again in Major International Debates”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President-elect of Brazil

Sunday, October 30, Brazilian men and women vote for their future, after four years of hatred, lies, scientific denial and the death of an unbearable number of our fellow citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic. Brazilian men and women must now choose a government that will defend democracy, peace, the unity of our society and respect for the rights of each other, thus putting an end to the experience of a power that has never stopped to isolate and shame us around the world.

After this long presidential campaign where I had the privilege of meeting millions of Brazilian men and women and after having obtained nearly 57 million votes in the first round, on October 2, I am convinced that from the 1^st January 2023 Brazil will again become the country of everyone, and that it will appear on the international scene to contribute to the construction of a better world.

“Credibility, predictability, stability”

Today, the climate emergency, rising inequalities and geopolitical tensions reveal the gravity of the crisis affecting our planet. Unfortunately, Jair Bolsonaro has continued to aggravate this situation by practicing climate revisionism, undermining the institutions of our democracy and promoting intolerance. These characteristics of his government have made Brazil a new pariah on the international scene. This cannot go on.

Brazil, under my presidency, will once again benefit from public policies aimed at improving the lives of our people and inspiring strong initiatives in favor of the protection of the environment, especially the Amazon, and the fight against poverty in the world.

My government will also reposition our country at the heart of international investment, so that we can create jobs and thus make the economy work again for the benefit of all the Brazilian people and not just a few.

"Credibility, predictability, stability" will be the motto of my government. I know that Brazil's situation in 2022 is worse than in 2002. But I have the experience of governing in a crisis situation: in 2003, I took office with 10% inflation, 12% unemployment. Brazil then owed $30 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [more than 28 billion euros at the time]. At the end of my mandate, we had reserves estimated at more than 200 billion dollars and we lent 15 billion dollars to the IMF.

A stronger Mercosur

My goal now is to do more and better. For this, it is necessary that Brazil be present again in the great international debates.

We will develop a sovereign and active foreign policy. We will work for peace, dialogue and international cooperation. We believe in a multipolar world, and unlike some members of the Bolsonaro government, we do not believe that the Earth is flat and that climate change does not exist. My government will work, with other countries, to rebuild the Amazon Fund and thus take care of the Amazon rainforest and biodiversity.

In Latin America, we will strengthen Mercosur [Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay] and relaunch regional integration. We no longer want Latin America to limit itself to the sole export of raw materials. In this sense, we will work so that our countries can once again industrialize and progress technologically.

Faced with the growing rivalries between China and the United States, we want to dialogue with everyone, and build a strategic partnership with the European Union (EU). Improving the terms of the Mercosur-EU agreement will allow us to increase our trade, deepen our bonds of trust and strengthen the defense of our common values.

On the other hand, the priority of my government will be to restore the relationship with the African continent. Brazil will be present to help and expand political, economic and social cooperation with its countries. We believe – and, by winning, we will work – in a multipolar world united around values such as solidarity, cooperation, humanism and social justice. Faced with the civilizations challenges that we are experiencing, we believe in a new global governance which must begin with the enlargement of the UN Security Council and the establishment of new forms of cooperation between countries.

We believe that another Brazil is possible, and another world is possible, because, in the not so distant past, we had begun to build it.

* This article was published in Le Monde on Saturday, October 29, 2022, before the second round of the presidential election that Lula da Silva (former President of Brazil from 2003 to 2011) won on  October 30, 2022, defeating by a narrow margin the incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.