Lula's Caravan In Brazil Threatens Its Ruling Billionaire Class

29 March 2018

 - Could a widely loved populist make a comeback?

Lula is like a man on fire. The former president, now age 72, does not seem to sleep. Since last August, Lula and his Workers’ Party (PT) have been traveling around Brazil with a “Lula for Brazil” Caravan. This bus caravan has gone to every state in this vast country, with Lula giving impassioned speeches in defense not only of democracy but of the gains made during the PT’s time in office. Hunger, for instance, declined dramatically as a result of Lula’s policies. In 2014, Brazil was removed from the UN hunger map. The government of the ‘soft coup’ that took power in 2016 has attempted to reverse the social democratic policies of the PT. Hunger has risen again. It is likely that Brazil will reappear in the next UN hunger map.

It is not easy to dismiss Lula. The PT has declared that Lula will be its presidential candidate for the elections of October 2018. Every single poll shows that Lula would trounce his opposition. The polls from Datafolha and MDA show Lula with twice the support of his closest challenger, the right-wing congressman Jair Bolsonaro. Even right-wing commentators are uneasy: it would be almost impossible to defeat Lula in a free election now and perhaps even in October.