Lula remains the great Brazilian leader.

The most recent CUT/Vox poll, conducted in early April, asked several questions about Lula. This week, in which the Judiciary wasted yet another opportunity to deliver justice and committed another act of violence against him, it is good to remember what the Brazilian people think of Lula. 

His political opponents were betting that the imprisonment would represent a definitive blow to his prestige among the majority of the population. He was imprisoned to cease being Lula, in a completely questionable process, conducted by a judge with evident political intentions, whose partisan decisions end up being endorsed by others who do not dare or do not want to confront him.  

In order to ensure that his imprisonment was fatal, they also decreed that he be silenced, something that only dictatorships impose on convicts with a similar trajectory. The prohibition of wider visits and granting interviews to the press, far from being proof of the equality of the penal system and the actions of the Judiciary in Brazil, is a symbol of its biases. The maxim that all are equal before the Law (a joke in a country where magistrates and prosecutors amass monetary and functional advantages to which only they are "entitled"), never applied to Lula.   

After a year in prison under these conditions, research has shown that the affection and esteem of the vast majority of society for Lula remain untouched. Those who wanted him politically dead have lost. The plan to destroy his image did not succeed.

This can be seen in the responses to questions concerning both personal and political aspects. In both, Lula continues to receive predominantly favorable ratings, higher than those of any other Brazilian politician.   

In spontaneous responses, he was considered "the best president Brazil has ever had" by 48% of those interviewed, an extraordinary figure in these times, when distrust and disapproval of leaders predominate. The second-placed candidate was Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who obtained 10% of the responses, five times less than him (which helps explain the inextinguishable resentment of the former president). To compare, Captain Bolsonaro, fresh from his recent victory, was considered as such by 5% of those surveyed, half of what FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) received and almost ten times less than Lula.   

In early 2013, before that year's protests, 58% answered "Lula" to the question. Everything that has happened since then, including the protests themselves, the crisis of Dilma's second government, her impeachment, the anti-PT hysteria of the mainstream press, the convictions and imprisonment, and Bolsonaro's victory, have all shifted the assessments slightly negatively, taking into account the margins of error. But nothing that takes away Lula's position as the best president Brazil has ever had, by a wide margin.   

Something similar occurs when asked about feelings towards the former president: 48% respond that they “like” Lula, again a number above expectations, all things considered, and only 23% say that they “do not like” him. The remainder state that they “neither like nor dislike Lula,” which could already be considered a defeat for those who want to present him as guilty of having caused serious damage to the country.

When respondents were asked to assess Lula's performance in national politics, a large majority considered the overall result to be positive. Among those surveyed, 65% believed that Lula may have made mistakes, but he did far more right things for the Brazilian people and for Brazil. Only 30%, less than half of that percentage, believed Lula made far more mistakes than he got right.

If he hadn't suffered a series of setbacks, Lula would have won the 2018 election, just as he would have won again if there were one now. To prevent the majority of the population from choosing him, the Brazilian elite embraced the pathetic figure of Captain Bolsonaro and carried him on their backs, turning a blind eye to his past misdeeds and the tricks he had to resort to in order to win. Now, they have to put up with his unpreparedness and instability.  

But they haven't taken Lula's place in the conscience and hearts of most people. Only fools (and opportunists) think that his party and comrades should forget about him and how much his leadership continues to mean in Brazilian politics.