President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday said he is considering running for re-election in 2026 to avoid a victory of the “troglodytes who ruled this country”, in a reference to the far-right led by former president Jair Bolsonaro.
“I don’t want to discuss re-election or the 2026 elections. Because I only have [two years and 6 months left] in the term. I want to keep what I promised to the Brazilian people”, Lula told CBN radio in an interview.
“When the moment arrives to discuss [the elections], there’s a lot of good people to run, I don’t need to be a candidate”, Lula added.
“[But] if it’s necessary to run to prevent the troglodytes who ruled this country from ruling again, you can be sure that my 80 years [of age] will turn to 40 and I can run”, the president said. Lula is 78, and would turn 81 just before taking a new term.
“I will not allow this country to be ruled again by a fascist. I will not allow this country to be ruled again by a [Covid and vaccine] denialist as we once had”, he added.
Mr. Bolsonaro was ruled ineligible by the Superior Electoral Court until 2030 for abuse of power. However, he could still mount a campaign in 2026 for several months until a new court decision actually removes him from the ballot and forces his running mate to step up.
A similar situation took place in 2018, when Lula himself was both in jail and ineligible. Lula mounted a campaign anyway, until the court removed him from the ballot and the Workers Party replaced him with his running mate Fernando Haddad, who lost to Mr. Bolsonaro. Mr. Haddad is currently the Finance minister in the Lula administration.
In October 2022, days before the runoff election in which he defeated Mr. Bolsonaro, Lula said on social media that, if elected, he would be a “one-term president”. In early 2023, weeks after taking office, he changed his discourse to saying he “could” run again if he was healthy and the country was in a “delicate situation”.
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