New president to be sworn in, hoping to unite country bitterly divided by Jair Bolsonaro’s ‘four years of terror’
Tens of thousands of Brazilians have flooded the streets of the country’s capital, Brasília, to celebrate the start of a new political era with the swearing in of the president,The veteran leftwinger, a former factory worker who was president from 2003 to 2010, will take power on Sunday afternoon during celebrations attended by world leaders and followers from the four corners of South America’s largest nation.
“The whole of Brazil is here – that’s what Lula’s capable of,” the 25-year-old said after stepping off a bus from the southern state of Santa Catarina, where he is part of the landless workers’ movement. Bolsonaro will boycott Lula’s inauguration, but the acting president, Hamilton Mourão, hinted at those divisions during a New Year’s Eve address in which he indirectly accused the rightwing radical of creating “an atmosphere of chaos and social breakdown” by“Alternation in power is healthy in a democracy and must be upheld,” Mourão declared, dashing the hopes of hardcore Bolsonaristas who have been calling for a military coup to prevent Lula taking over.
“But they didn’t go back to normal in the US. Nothing is normal politically. And it’s not going to return to some sort of placid normality [in Brazil either].”Still, the mere prospect of a fresh start under a progressive and inclusive Lula government – which has vowed to fight environmental crime and named an Indigenous woman to lead Brazil’s first-ever ministry for indigenous people – has thrilled supporters who have flocked to the capital.
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