Lula has added 97 controversial phrases since returning to Planalto

O president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has made 97 speeches considered controversial since returning to Palácio do Planalto for his 3rd term. In 2024 alone, there were 50 such declarations. Last year, 55. The numbers are from a survey carried out by Poder360 from January 1, 2023 to May 1.

Among the phrases said by the PT member, 43 may be considered offenses against people, social minorities or other groups. Already 24 are related to international politics, such as comments about other countries and wars, while on 12 occasions there was an error in the information.

Read Lula’s main controversial speeches:

At the ministerial meeting on March 18, for example, the agreement was that Lula would give an opening speech and pass the floor to the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, who would present the government’s positive results.

However, the president took the floor and these that there was no coup d’état in Brazil on January 8 because the former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) was a “coward”. The president did not mention his predecessor by name.

“If, 3 months ago, when we talked about a coup it seemed like just an insinuation, today we are sure that this country was at serious risk of having a coup due to the 2022 elections. And there was no coup, not only because some people who were in command of the Armed Forces, they didn’t want to do it, they didn’t accept the president’s idea, but also because the president is a coward”he declared.

In March, once again, the president’s statements overshadowed the focus of the event. On PT’s 44th anniversary, held in Brasília, Lula confessed that he often cannot hold back. “When I see a microphone, my teeth itch”he said upon taking the stage.

The PT member reported that he had agreed with the first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, that he would not speak at the event. O Poder360 found that the promise not to speak was also made to several advisors.

By failing to fulfill his promise, Lula criticized the decision of the Barcelona Courtin Spain, which had granted provisional release to former football player Daniel Alves if he paid bail of €1 million (around R$5.4 million), which ended up being done days later.

The declaration was considered by ministers as disastrous because the president did not need to have been involved in the case, and, although it displeases the president, the decision is within the legal parameters of the Spanish Court.

CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENTS

Lula mentions Bolsonaro, directly or indirectly, frequently. A critical tone and the use of terms considered pejoratives. He has already called the former president “genocide” in an interview with TV network! and said that his predecessor defied science for too long during the Covid pandemic.

Regarding statements about international politics, Lula spoke about the Venezuelan elections, scheduled for July 28, and declared that “nothing is worth it” if the country’s opposition candidate has the same behavior as the opposition in Brazil.

Lula said he has not yet stayed “crying” when he was unable to run in the elections in 2018, referring to María Corina Machado, leader of Nicolás Maduro’s opposition. She is banned from holding public office for the next 15 years. The president of Venezuela is a historic ally of the PT member.

Factual errors were also made by the president. In a decoration by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, to the indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, on March 23, Lula confused the French with the country’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy. The guests quickly corrected him.

At the beginning of April, during the 12th National Conference on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, the PT member made a mistake and said that 12.3 million children died in Gaza. As of Thursday (May 2), around 14,000 Palestinian children have died in the conflict, according to the Al Jazeera (state broadcaster of the Qatari monarchy). Information about Gaza is from Hamas and there is no way to independently verify this data.

Still regarding the war between Israel and Hamas, the president declared in February during a trip to Ethiopia: “What is happening in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian people does not exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”.

The statements comparing the actions of the war against Hamas to those of Hitler against the Jews made the PT member “persona non grata” in Israel. Foreign Minister Israel Katz demanded a formal retraction from Lula – which did not happen.

Both of Lula’s incorrect statements were not included in the official speech released by the Palácio do Planalto.

This report was written by journalism intern Evellyn Paola under the supervision of assistant editor Isadora Albernaz.