Lula is the necessary hope.

The effort to launch Lula's candidacy today in Belo Horizonte deserves the support of the entire country. Essentially, it's about preventing a blatant preemptive coup against the popular will. 

For more than a decade, our democratic institutions have been under constant attack from the mainstream media-judiciary coalition -- and it's no longer difficult to see that the country is nearing a breaking point.

More than just an election campaign typical of democracies, in June 2018 Brazilians witnessed the relentless flight of predatory candidacies, lacking real substance, typical of adventurers seeking opportunities and advantages amidst the ruins of a regime of freedoms, social rights, and respect for citizenship that was once a source of pride for the entire Southern Hemisphere.  

Convicted after proving his innocence through documents, at the end of a relentless persecution, Lula's campaign is the necessary hope in a serious situation such as has rarely been seen in Brazilian history.

It expresses a unique popular recognition in a nation legendary for inequality, the exclusion of the poor, and the oppression of the weak.

To those who threaten to lose heart in the face of so much injustice, brutality, and cowardice, it is worth remembering the most important thing.

Fueled exclusively by the noblest weapon of politics -- the conscience of a people often accused of having no memory -- Lula's candidacy represents the simplest and most rational path for Brazil to once again become a country that respects the will of the majority and has not given up on building a better future for its children and grandchildren.

Given the spectacle of continuous destruction of reputations, which now targets Fernando Henrique Cardoso, one of the founding figures of the New Republic that succeeded the dictatorship of the generals, it is difficult to deny that Lula's presence in the 2018 campaign represents a chance for democracy and the country.

This unacceptable truculence, the attempt to prevent his presence on the ballot in 2018, marks not only an affront to the rights and guarantees provided for in the 2018 Citizen Constitution -- starting with the presumption of innocence.

From a political standpoint, it is nothing more than an attempt to revive a shameful and harmful history for the country.

Between dictators and elected presidents, our Republic has accumulated a malignant set of authoritarian regimes always lurking, ready to suppress the popular will through force.

Of the 36 rulers who took office in 129 years, only half were directly elected. Of the 18 chosen by ballot, twelve managed to finish their term and six were deposed, two by impeachment, the others by coups d'état. From 1946 onwards, when elections lost the elitist character of the Old Republic to gain increasing popular participation, which since 1988 has even included allowing illiterate people to vote, a symptomatic change occurred.

The anti-democratic reaction, against the will of the ballot box, now less desirable from the point of view of major established interests, has become more prevalent. Of the eight citizens elected, four were unable to complete their terms.

In a nation historically exhausted by coups and authoritarian interventions, it's always good to remember that there is no alternative outside of democracy—which remains a less bad regime than all the others.

In this context, Lula's campaign is the reason for citizens to take to the streets to fight for their rights and demands.

Any questions?