A tribute to Lula Da Silva ignited controversy in Brazil months before the elections

In the first presentation this Sunday, “Niteroi Academics”, a debut school in the elite group of the carioca carnival, reviewed the life of the progressive leaderfrom his birth in the impoverished Brazilian northeast and the difficulties he faced in childhood to his consolidation as a union leader and his election as the first workers’ president of Brazil.

It was, in short, a confirmation of a tribute that had transcended days ago and that had even generated a complaint by the opposition considering that the parade was equivalent to a campaign event, in view of the October presidential election this yearin which the leader of the Workers’ Party will seek re-election.

Specifically, they argued that it was early election propaganda of a group that receives public resources. The Justicehowever, refused to ban the paradealthough the Electoral Tribunal made it clear that it could be the reason for an investigation.

The tribute, with thousands of dancers and musicians properly costumed showing different aspects of the president’s life, had Lula located in a box of the Mayor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro at the sambadrome.

The president was accompanied by seven ministers and numerous politicians, despite the fact that the Government prohibited the participation of senior officials in the parade and asked for caution, given the fear that Lularepresented in the parade by an 18-meter statue, may be fined, sanctioned or even disqualified.

Fears led the first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silvawho would appear on the last float of the parade, to give up participating at the last minute.

Even before the dancers and musicians began to parade, the public began chanting in the stands. “Hello, hello, hello, Lula, Lula”an old campaign slogan of the progressive, and, with flags and posters, he made his preference clear.

The parade began with giant screens showing scenes from Lula’s political life and a representation of his mother, ‘Doña Lindú’, fleeing with her children to the industrialized state of Sao Paulo.

The commission in charge of presenting the parade staged President Michel Temer stealing the presidential stripe, in an allusion to the dismissal of Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s successor, to hand it over to a clown representing the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, until the progressive leader appears to recover it and be able to climb the ramp of the Planalto presidential palace again.

One of the most applauded groups of dancers was the one made up of relatives of victims of the Brazilian dictatorship. A float titled “no false myths, no amnesty” was also applauded, a clear allusion to Bolsonaro, Lula’s greatest political rival, convicted and imprisoned for a coup and whose allies in Congress are trying to benefit from an amnesty.

“Our intention was not electoral. We chose Lula as a topic because it was a winning story. Brazilians like the story of people who come from below and win. We brought to the sambadrome the story of a person who won,” said the parade scriptwriter, Igor Ricardo.

Furthermore, he attributed the criticism “to the out-of-touch nervousness of the extreme right” and insisted that the school’s intention was not to conduct an electoral campaign.

“We are not asking for votes for Lula. We are simply telling his life, but we cannot tell his story without talking about politics,” said Ricardo, who said that the president cried when they told him details of the project and the samba composed for the parade.

After the presentation of the debutant “Academicos de Niteroi”, “Mangueira”, “Portela” and “Imperatriz Leopoldinense”, three of the most popular and awarded schools in Rio, were scheduled to hold their parades on this Sunday night.

The parades of the twelve samba schools of the Special Group of Rio de Janeiro, which continue on Monday and Tuesday nights, are the biggest attraction of the Brazilian carnival and considered the largest open-air spectacle in the world.