From the death of Pelé to the resurrection of Lula

Brazil is going through a chiaroscuro moment in which three days separate the death of Pelé from the resurrection of Lula.

With this, the only thing that remains clear is that football is above many things and that what unites ends when it runs into the borders of the political.

So while 2 million separate the country that preferred Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva from the one that preferred Jair Messias Bolsonaro, millions of “both sides” will come to say goodbye to the king of the ball in the next 48 hours.

I wish everything was like celebrating a goal or hugging in defeat. However, outside of the ball game the dynamics are a bit different and it can even be said that Edson Arantes do Nascimento was kind enough, even after his death, to put it on hold for a few days and allow Lula to have in peace their “Easter Sunday”, in the style of Jesus.

His funeral acts were postponed at the request of his family so that they would not interfere with the inauguration of the experienced president and this January 2, his body will leave the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in the Morumbí area of ​​Sao Paulo, and the funeral procession will take him directly to Santos stadium. The last wish of him.

Then, on Tuesday, January 3, in the morning, the funeral procession will leave again to take him to his last resting place, that step will be with a special route, they will pass through Channel 6, where Pelé’s mother lives, with 100 years, Doña Celeste will see her son’s body pass by before reaching the cemetery.

Meanwhile, former President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to allow this to happen with his body politic and has not handed over the presidential sash to the leftist. He flew to Florida and will spend some time at the Mar a Lago condominium in Palm Beach, owned by former President Donald Trump.

From what we can say that from north to south, although it is true that history does not repeat itself, there are times when it rhymes, and that, like soccer, democracy also has bad losers and bad winners.

Because although Lula spoke in his protest of democracy, hunger and deforestation, he also spent a lot of time criticizing the situation in which his predecessor left the country and described his government as “a project of national destruction.”

The latter setting off the alarm because in addition to capitalizing on polarization for the glorification of a political moment, it is well known that blaming the past for the problems of the present distracts, but does not solve them.

This is how 2023 starts with all its loads.

Brazil breathes polarized and its guts growl with as many dreams as fears. In which the national and international context translate into challenges.

Based on a study by the Penssan network released in June, there are 33 million Brazilians who are hungry. Which translates into 15.5% of the country’s population, and this in turn translates into a much higher proportion than the 9.5% of people who went hungry during Lula’s first government.

It is worth noting that a good part of those who voted for the current president hope that he will repeat the great achievement of his first government, when more than 30 million Brazilians ascended to the middle class with State social programs. However, the world of 2023 is not the same as that of 2003.

Twenty years ago the world was growing a lot largely because of China, commodity prices boomed and Brazil benefited. While the year that is beginning brings with it a world that has not yet recovered from a pandemic, a China that is growing less, and a war in Ukraine that makes fuel and food more expensive.

All this is reflected in Brazil and makes increasing social spending a challenge. Because the money is far from surplus and fulfilling campaign promises such as maintaining a money transfer program for the poor called Bolsa Família, which was key in his first government, and an increase in the minimum wage, will not be easy.

Congress in December authorized about $28 billion worth of additional government spending through 2023 to finance those plans, as well as an extra $4.4 billion for public investments.

The approval of this constitutional amendment was a political triumph for the incoming government, whose Finance Minister is Fernando Haddad, former mayor of São Paulo and former PT presidential candidate in 2018, when Lula was convicted of corruption in a process that was later canceled.

But by exceeding the spending ceiling that was established, it also cast doubt on the fiscal restrictions that the new administration will have. Aligning in this way, with the way in which the markets reacted to the return of Lula.

Brazilian assets fell in October after the elections. The US ETF, the largest exchange-traded fund that tracks US stocks, fell 5%. At the same time, the shares of Petrobras in the US made it up 8 percent.

This is the context of Lula’s resurrection after the martyrdom that ended with 18 months of “crucifixion” in prison in 2018 and that, as he had promised his “disciples”, he returned from the dead.

Now his life will depend to a large extent on the economy and his political ability to negotiate with a Congress where Bolsonaro’s supporters have the majority.

Meanwhile Pelé rests in peace and above all transcends.

The last one out turn off the light.

Twitter: @HenaroStephanie