Finally, Secom returns to what it is – a Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency of the Republic.

By choosing to prioritize digital media and its vibrant social networks, the government shielded itself from the declining arm of the media opposition and thus disrupted the series of fabricated stories that must have already been planned.

May 07, 2015, 20:33 AMUpdated March 26, 2020, 10:57 PM

By choosing to prioritize digital media and its vibrant social networks, the government shielded itself from the declining arm of the media opposition and thus disrupted the series of fabricated stories that must have already been planned (Photo: Daniel Quoist)

Lula reappears on stage with the scent of eternal novelty.

And it brings with it the right, well-tuned discourse, befitting its status as a political and communication phenomenon that has emerged in the country in recent decades.

Now that the opposition and the mainstream monopoly media have understood that their enemy is not Dilma Rousseff but rather the metalworker who was twice president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, this has also become quite clear to Lula himself, their sworn enemy.

In this context, we see Lula positioning himself, with sharp reasoning, a convincing and sometimes fiery discourse, as someone who truly has the moral authority to claim his own leading role in the shift that Brazil has taken towards broad social mobility, and who comes to celebrate the most formidable set of public inclusion policies that has been seen in Latin America in the recent past.

Well, I have carefully observed the criticism of the PT's recently released program on national radio and television.

Some people try to spout nonsense, like this one from Aécio "Sore Loser" Neves: "The PT hid Dilma from its program!"

Others echo the old mantra they've been hoping to make a reality, at least for the last four and a half years: "The PT has definitively distanced itself from Dilma's government!"

The truth, at least in my calm way of separating facts from political narratives, is that neither the Bad Loser is sincere and truthful in his speech, nor have the opposition bloggers managed, at least this time, to rejoice in a possible discord that could even slightly divorce the PT and President Dilma Rousseff.

And it's not about hiding Dilma.

Let's see, is the president still campaigning to occupy the spaces proper to her main party? She was elected and is governing. It's regrettable that the candidate she defeated is still betting on an increasingly improbable third round of elections.

Given the manipulation of the reactionary, conservative, and monopolistic media that we have, what would the government gain by using the space that belongs exclusively to the PT (Workers' Party)?

Only if the desire was to play into the hands of the "Tramontina-style" pot-banging protests in the chic and elegant neighborhoods of Leblon and Ipanema, Jardins and Pinheiros, Savassi and Mangabeiras.

If Dilma had a leading role in her party's program, she would be nothing more than a stepping stone for her detractors entrenched in TV Globo, Globo News, CBN radio, and the subject of sensationalist, disparaging, and stale articles that usually flood the opinion journalism that is frankly dominant in the print media - Veja, Época, O Globo, Folha and Estadão.

The last two decisions made by those in charge of communication around the President of the Republic were spot on.

The first was to not make a televised statement on Labor Day, May 1st.

By choosing to prioritize digital media and its vibrant social networks, the government shielded itself from the declining arm of the media opposition, thus disrupting the series of fabricated stories that must have already been planned to undermine it at the very moment of the pronouncement. It backfired, and they had to settle for the pot-banging protests from within the government, as Globo employees André Trigueiro and Leilane Neubarth, to name just a few, did with exuberant joy.

In short, at the eleventh hour, the government withdrew its support, leaving the opposition and the media to echo their complaints in the style of "it was too embarrassing for the president not to address the nation."

The second wise decision was not to include the president in the PT's party political broadcast on May 5th.

Once again, the government was successful in thwarting new smear campaigns by those seeking to "bleed" the president's image, keep her approval ratings low, and thus leverage, perhaps even before 2018, the old third round. And what is a third round if not a cretinous, uningenious, and crude way of masking what is nothing more than a coup conspiracy, uniting the angry, sore-loser opposition, devoid of any discourse, with a press with a clearly coup-supporting, elitist, and monopolistic tradition against a government legitimately elected less than six months ago?

Both decisions point to a fait accompli: the government finally realized it needed to give at least some attention to its Secretariat of Communication, SECOM, and proved it was right when it placed someone with the profile of Minister Edinho Silva at its head – measured yet energetic, competent, loyal, and with mature experience in the arts of politics. It's as if SECOM is picking up the thread left by the greatest strategist the PT ever had, Minister Luiz Gushiken.

And this is happening at a time when even Lula's old comrades are showing strong hints of melancholy, a "lowering" of flags, and a certain intellectual weariness.

Lula's reappearance on May 1st in São Paulo was a grand affair, and we saw that old youthful disposition of his returning to what he knows to be his best work: dialoguing, debating, conversing with the people, bringing the heart of Brazil to the center of the national agenda. And he does this using a very 'decoded' language, smelling brand new.

Something, therefore, very different from that artificial, soap-opera-like scenario that candidate Aécio Neves, the sore loser, tried to push forward in 2014 with the slogan "Let's talk?" and look what happened: the people didn't want to talk to him. And, out of spite, resentful as only he can be, he refuses, time and again, to acknowledge the sovereign sentence of the ballot box telling him: "The elected president of Brazil is Dilma Rousseff! Playboy, you lost!"

Yes, Lula continues with the same old speech, some would say in biased and bored reasoning, but that's because he conveys something very sincere in his arguments, and the people he addresses grasp this in the first few minutes of his speech.

Now, the burning questions:

1. So, when does this infamous third round finally end?

2. Isn't it high time to put a resounding stop to this coup-mongering third round of voting?

* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.