Brazil - Former President Cardoso: “Lula’s Vision Of Brazil Is A Damaging Fiction”

The knives are out for Brazil’s election now that former President Cardoso has written an opinion piece in the influential European business newspaper Financial Times in which he openly criticized his now jailed successor, former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva regarding his right to run in this year’s presidential election.

Given the uncertainty as to the outcome of Brazil’s election this year, many business media around the world (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Financial Times) have started to take an interest in the upcoming election in the largest nation in South America, in which the rightwing conservative Mr Jair Bolsonaro currently leads in the polls.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fernando Henrique Cardoso writes: Lula da Silva’s vision of Brazil is a dangerous fiction. Lula portrays Brazil as a democracy in ruins, in which the rule of law has given way to arbitrary measures designed to undermine him and his party. This is not true<br> <a href="https://t.co/CFwxMB9ASA">https://t.co/CFwxMB9ASA</a></p>&mdash; Moisés Naím (@MoisesNaim) <a href="https://twitter.com/MoisesNaim/status/1031859492407975936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The British Financial Times, seen as one of the most influential business newspapers in Europe, lent it’s editorial space yesterday to Mr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil’s president from 1995 to 2003. In the past few days, the New York Times had given a similar editorial piece to Mr Jorge G. Castañeda, the former Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs who tried to influence the reading public to allow Mr Lula da Silva, currently imprisoned for corruption, to run in this year’s election (see our related coverage).

Related coverage: <a href="http://thegoldwater.com/news/34748-New-York-Times-Editorial-Illegally-Promotes-Brazil-Election-Meddling">New York Times illegally promotes Brazil election meddling</a>.

Mr Cardoso decided to try another tack, stating: “The manner in which Lula da Silva has chosen to defend himself to the world, however, needs to be challenged. In a recent article, he presented a version of recent Brazilian history that bears no relation to reality. This would be a problem for historians were he not the influential political leader that he is.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lula is a convicted felon of corruption and money laundering, sentenced to 12 years in prison! This despicable man has looted Brazil and deserves to rot in prison. <a href="https://t.co/4h7djdXC1l">pic.twitter.com/4h7djdXC1l</a></p>&mdash; Kleber Verraes (@KleberVerraes) <a href="https://twitter.com/KleberVerraes/status/1032526110154797056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2018</a></blockquote>

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“The former president portrays Brazil as a democracy in ruins, in which the rule of law has given way to arbitrary measures designed to undermine him and his party. This is not true.”

The former Brazilian President sees no wrongdoing in the Justice department’s decision to impeach former President Dilma Roussef as well, stating: “President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment and removal from office in 2016 was not, contrary to what Lula da Silva claims, a coup d’état. It was the result of, among other things, her government’s violation of Brazil’s fiscal responsibility law in the run-up to the 2014 election.”

“The impeachment process followed all the constitutional proprieties under the supervision of the Brazilian supreme court, in which the majority of justices were nominated by Lula da Silva and Ms Rousseff.”

Related coverage: <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/31143-Brazil-Three-Months-Before-Elections-Far-Right-Candidate-Bolsonaro-Still-Leads">Bolsonaro still leads polls</a>.

Current polls indicate that Mr Jair Bolsonaro is leading the popular vote with 20-23%. Brazil goes to the polls in October.

Source:

https://www.ft.com/stream/5fbf2aa3-cbaf-3819-b7bc-790debc01a7e