Brazil’s ex-president ‘Lula’ free to run against Jair Bolsonaro after convictions are quashed

Lula's supporters say he was persecuted

Credit: REUTERS

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ruled to quash all criminal convictions against ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, meaning that Brazil’s Left-wing icon may have his political rights reinstated and could run for election against far-Right President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.

In a statement, Lula’s defence lawyers said the decision is recognition that "[they] were right all along" in the drawn-out legal battle to clear the ex-president’s name.

The annulment was lauded by international leftist figures, including Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez, who celebrated that "justice has been done".

"The convictions against Lula were issued with the sole purpose of persecution and eliminating him from politics".

Brazilian markets did not take the news well, with the São Paulo stock exchange slipping 4 per cent on Monday amid fears of an intensely divisive 2022 election between Lula and Mr Bolsonaro.

About a third of the electorate remain loyal to Bolsonaro, according to an opinion poll

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"If you thought Brazil was politically polarised before", tweeted political pundit Thomas Traumann, "take a seat, because the show is just getting started”.

In a TV interview on Monday evening, President Bolsonaro said he was "surprised" by the decision, but believes "the Brazilian people do not want a candidate like [Lula] in 2022”.

Opinion polls beg to differ, however, as a recent IPEC survey showed a groundswell of public support for a potential Lula candidacy in next year’s election.

Fifty per cent of respondents indicated they would consider voting for the leftist figurehead in 2022, while only 38 per cent said the same about Mr Bolsonaro.

Despite his catastrophic handling of the coronavirus pandemic — which has claimed over 265,000 Brazilian lives — Mr Bolsonaro has clung to the unwavering support of roughly 30 per cent of the electorate, but he has benefitted from a lack of credible opposition.

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Lula served as Brazil’s president between 2003 and 2010, overseeing a period of dramatic growth and poverty reduction in Latin America’s largest economy.

When he left office, he did so with an 83 per cent approval rating, the highest for an outgoing head of state in Brazil’s history.

In 2017, a controversial trial saw Lula convicted on corruption and money laundering charges and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison, later increased to 12 years.

Subsequent evidence surfaced to suggest that prosecutors and judges illegally collaborated to convict and imprison Lula.

He spent 580 days in jail before being released in late 2019 to await appeal.

From behind bars, Lula ran for president in 2018 until electoral courts barred his candidacy. Before being ruled ineligible to compete, opinion polls had Lula as the election frontrunner, comfortably beating the eventual winner, Mr Bolsonaro.

Now, barring reconviction, the former president may finally get the chance to face Mr Bolsonaro at the ballot box in 2022.