By TARSUS GENUS*

Lula will be president again: he showed that he knows, he showed that he can

Lula's arrival in Porto Alegre, at the beginning of June, reminded me of his previous arrival in the State, on his visit to Unipampa, when right-wing and extreme right-wing political forces in the Bagé region - assisted by local landlord leaders and by politicians linked to the philosophy of the whip – they stoned the bus we were on. Thus, they demonstrated their “Neanderthal” gratitude for what Lula did for the region. It was the conscious devolution, filled with irrational hatred – by way of “recognition” – to the president who had changed that part of the State for the better, allocating a large Federal University in the regional pole of the western border, whose presence in the social space would change the logic educational, scientific and cultural center of Rio Grande.

Lula's presence in Porto Alegre, at the beginning of June, however, seems to mark a new political environment here, as it recreates the traditional political values ​​of Rio Grande, within which the ability of the fascists, always lurking, may disappear. , to set up their scenario of confrontation through violence.

I say irrational hatred because the political confrontation between two visions of reason is one of the hallmarks of any democracy, but the “irrational conflict” is a feature of fascism and the deterioration of the civilizing force of the rule of law, a hallmark of moments of system crisis. and domination of capital. I believe that Jair Bolsonaro's strategy is becoming increasingly clear, when courting the adventurous sectors of the Armed Forces (until now a minority) for a coup-mongering action, combining this courtship with virulent attacks on the Supreme Court, to try to place it as a appendix of the late Republic of Curitiba.

In that desert of democratic legal training, the peculiar concept of “institutional coup d’état” originated, which ended up defeating President Dilma and the whole country, in an “impeachment” led by a crook who put Lula in jail in Curitiba, where perhaps Sérgio Moro may go in the not too distant future.

The formation, on a national scale, of a “double Front” – left-wing and “broad” – or of two constituent moments of a single Front against militia Bolsonarism, showed here all its power. Not only because of the plurality of conversation tables and events that the President participated in, but also because of his unified speech around the main issues that we must face in the next period: defeating the extreme right in the first round, strengthening republican powers, reorganizing the economy towards growth and employment, develop a foreign policy of interdependent cooperation with sovereignty, recover the idea of ​​food sovereignty, promote the fight against hunger, block savage privatizations and remake the federative pact, mainly with regard to tax policy, distribution of Union resources and resumption of collaboration regimes, between its entities, for an efficient and citizen public security.

It is a daring program and so far only one man has shown the conditions to lead it, because he managed to convince that there is no third way without fighting fascism and without committing to eradicate it from within democracy and the republic. Those who put Lula and Bolsonaro on the same plane, as if they were two extremes, will remain, as it is impossible to convince the vast majority of the people that Lula and Bolsonaro are “the same thing”. They are not, they will not be and never were, because if political leaders make mistakes when governing, those who do not renounce their humanist principles to become a sower of hatred, violence and prejudice, have an exponential advantage, as they do not constitute a threat in the future nor a block to the simple energies of good and solidarity, in the present.

The so-called third way ended when Lula, with his political competence, managed to demonstrate that he was, at the same time, the most consequential force to defeat fascism, making it totally clear to the formations on his left and making it clear that he would come, calmly, in the center, to form a government with a new majority, without prejudice, without hatred, without promises that are impossible to keep.

It thus assumed a commitment to the republican nation, not to a particular party or a social ideology, in particular, which feeds – thankfully – the groups and leaders of the left, who know, by reading historical experiences or their own experiences, that if democracy succumbs to bandits or dictators, our utopias of equality and justice become even more improbable and distant. With this movement, Lula replaced his original democratic unionist vision, suitable in the period immediately preceding the one we are experiencing, with the idea of ​​rebuilding the nation, dissociated and fragmented by the adventure of the ruling classes that allowed Jair Bolsonaro to come to power.

For Bolsonaro, street violence is of interest, which can unify the repressive apparatuses of the State to provoke chaos, and thus court the large part of the business community that has not the slightest interest in human rights, democracy, political negotiations to restore something of the republic, who suffers threats and blackmail from the president every day. For Lula and the majority of the people – as an adequate metaphor for the real world – the price of gas and the freedom to go to and from work, earn a living and enjoy the moments of joy that it can offer are of interest. Acquiring gas and enjoying the journey, however, have health, education, security in their path, which only a nation project can offer within the global system of crisis, misery and war. Those who know this win the election and those who know this have proven that they already know.

In the depths of the fields of Rio Grande do Sul, in the center of the attacked forests, in the great belts of misery of the grimy metropolises, in the families of all classes where empathy has not disappeared, in the surroundings of the tears left in the saturated cemeteries, the sad voices of the victims of fascist delirium will rise. And a network of limpid songs of roosters at dawn will weave the dawn of a new pact to rebuild the nation. And remove it from the nightmare that suffocates us. And Lula will then be president again: he has shown that he knows, he has shown that he can.

*Tarsus in law he was governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, mayor of Porto Alegre, Minister of Justice, Minister of Education and Minister of Institutional Relations in Brazil. Author, among other books, of possible utopia (Arts & Crafts).