On the eve of the inauguration, 16 years ago, Brasília was a party with Lula and FHC.

By Ricardo Kotscho, for Kotscho's Basket e Journalists for Democracy - Lauro Jardim in Globo this Wednesday:

"A week before the inauguration, Jair, Eduardo, and Carlos Bolsonaro spent Christmas yesterday picking a fight on Twitter. Their targets were left-wing parties, the press, and even Facebook. A peaceful Christmas."

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At the end of 2002, around this same time of year, on the eve of the transfer of power from FHC to Lula, Brazil was a different country, filled with joy and hope.

Brasilia was experiencing days of celebration.

Nobody was talking about security arrangements for the inauguration ceremony, nobody was afraid of anything, a high-spirited atmosphere prevailed in the city.

I had already been there for almost two months, working in the transitional government.

I couldn't keep up with all the lunches and dinners that went on until the early hours of the morning, with journalists and officials from the old and new governments, mixed together in the same bars and restaurants, often at the same table.

I think it was around that time that I started getting fat.

The contrast with what we see now, less than a week before the Bolsonaro government takes office, is striking.

To remember what those days were like, I turn once again to my memoir (“From the Coup to the Presidential Palace – A Reporter's Life”, Companhia das Letras).

Before the end of the year, Marisa invited my family to lunch at Granja do Torto.

If it weren't for the presence of Martins, the butler, and the waiters and security guards scattered inside and outside the residence, I wouldn't have noticed any change in the Silva family's habits since the first time I went to their house in Vila Pauliceia, in the ABC region, in 1978.

Not even the menu had changed: rice, beans, steak, salad. One had the impression that no one there was experiencing the anxiety of the historic moment preceding the inauguration of Brazil's first working-class president.

I think I was the most nervous, worried about the gigantic coverage by the national and foreign press that had consumed me in recent days.

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Everything was arranged by mutual agreement with the team of my friend Ana Tavares, FHC's press secretary, and the staff at Itamaraty, as if we belonged to the same government.

After our final meeting, Ana gave me one last piece of advice:

“I’m going to take all my things out of here by tomorrow. On inauguration day, you’d better put up some family photos and leave Mara here to look after things. Otherwise, they’ll end up taking this room from you…”

I had heard of power struggles within governments, but I never imagined they also involved offices, desk sizes, and types of chairs.

The inauguration day dawned beautifully in Brasília, and later there was even a rainbow in the Cerrado.

While the crowd began to fill all the spaces on the Esplanade of Ministries, back at Granja do Torto Lula was still putting the finishing touches on the speech he would deliver in the National Congress, the most important of the day.

But that wasn't the reason Lula was almost late for the ceremony.

As the presidential convoy, which even included an ambulance, was preparing to leave Torto, Marisa remembered that she needed to restrain Michele, the couple's fox terrier, who was always running around the gardens.

Shortly before three in the afternoon, the scheduled time for the start of the party on the esplanade, Lula and Marisa got into the car with the small flag and the license plates of the Presidency of the Republic.

At that moment, they discovered that their lives would now be timed by two military men, who would soon become friends of the couple: Marco Gonçalves Dias, an Army colonel and head of security, and Rui Chagas Mesquita, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and head of the aide-de-camp. It was time to leave.

Lula was determined to open the windows of the armored car, which were locked for security reasons.

While joking with Colonel Gonçalves Dias, he threatened to jump out of the car to greet the thousands of people who were scattered everywhere along the road from Lago Norte to the Brasília Cathedral, at the entrance to the Esplanada dos Ministérios.

The problem was solved when Lula switched to the 1953 Rolls-Royce convertible that would first take him to the National Congress.

At the beginning of the ramp to Congress, where the car broke down and had to be pushed by security guards, Lula was moved to see the people throwing themselves into the reflecting pools in front of him to greet him.

It was the most beautiful image I have of the inauguration.

Later, as we walked up the ramp to the Palácio do Planalto, it was difficult to tell who was more emotional: the president who was entering or the one who was leaving.

Lula and Fernando Henrique looked like two old friends reuniting as one passed the presidential sash to the other.

At the end of the ceremony, as he said goodbye to the departing president at the elevator door on the second floor, Lula extended his hand and said, "Fernando, know that you will always have a friend here," which brought tears to FHC's eyes.

Since Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff were re-elected for a second term, this would be the last transfer of power from one party to another in the last 16 years, an unforgettable example of civility, dignity and tolerance, something so lacking in Brazil today, as can be seen in the opening of this text.

What was supposed to be a celebration of democracy has now turned into a war with a set date to begin. Those were the good old days.

Life goes on.

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