PT president calls opposition offensive against Lula parade “ridiculous”

The president of the Workers’ Party, Edinho Silva, criticized the opposition’s attempt to denounce the parade and samba by Acadêmicos de Niterói, which paid homage to the trajectory of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), as early election propaganda.

“Trying to wear down the president politically due to the choices of allegories by Acadêmicos de Niterói borders on the ridiculous. The Brazilian people deserve a more qualified political debate”, he stated.

The presentation, which took place on Sunday (15), has been the target of questions and criticism from parliamentarians and religious leaders, who accuse the school of promoting an early campaign for the president. The main justification is that the plot “From the top of mulungu comes hope: Lula, the worker of Brazil” would go beyond the cultural nature of the event in an election year.

The parade is also the target of criticism for an allegory that portrayed conservative families inside tin cans. In the same allegory, figures associated with evangelicals, military men and white women also appeared.

In response to the “preserved neoconservatives” wing, presented by Acadêmicos de Niterói, parliamentarians launched a digital campaign with the help of artificial intelligence tools to generate images of their families printed on cans, with words such as “preserved in Jesus Christ”.

Regarding the accusations, Edinho reinforced that “church leaders have always had President Lula as an ally in the construction of public policies to strengthen Brazilian families”.

Negative repercussion

The repercussion of the Acadêmicos de Niterói parade motivated opposition parties and parliamentarians to structure an offensive in court against President Lula. The opposition has already announced at least 12 actions against the PT member in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the Public Ministry and other control bodies.

The measures focus on three main accusations: early electoral propaganda, abuse of political and economic power and religious discrimination.

In the case of electoral propaganda, the opposition’s assessment is that the plot and elements of the parade would have promoted Lula outside the period allowed by legislation. By law, demonstrations with an explicit request to vote are prohibited before July of the election year, but the characterization of irregularity depends on a case-by-case analysis.

The most serious complaint announced comes from the Novo party, which intends to request Lula’s ineligibility as soon as his candidacy is eventually registered, on the grounds that public resources would have been used to favor his image in a pre-election context.