"The Lula case is a political kidnapping," says French senator.

247 - Senator and national secretary of the French Communist Party, Pierre Laurent, 61, an economist trained at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, believes that the situation of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva "is a political kidnapping to prevent him from becoming president of the Republic." "The machinery that was set up initially with the institutional coup against Dilma Rousseff aimed, in the long term, to prevent Lula from running again for president," he says in an article published in Diario do Centro do Mundo.

According to the scholar, "there was a desire to demoralize a left-wing alternative in Brazil. We believe this is intolerable, from the point of view of democracy, because those who replaced Dilma have shown the bankruptcy of their power, the state of corruption into which they will once again plunge the country." "If Lula is prevented from running, we could see the far right take power. Our solidarity was immediate, and we had a particular responsibility in France. The French media followed the campaign to discredit Dilma without any distancing from the arguments used by Temer and his supporters. Later, Temer revealed his true colors. Today, in France, there is a shocking silence surrounding Lula's scandalous situation," he added.

According to Laurent, "the French leadership is quite constrained by this situation. They don't want to question the Brazilian economic environment; it's necessary not to question American interests in this immense battle. We see the great description, to put it euphemistically, of the French media, which was quite vocal during the campaign against Dilma."

"There are many high-ranking officials who worked with Lula, who not only cannot accuse him, but also know what they owe him at important moments for the world, such as when it was necessary to resist the temptation of the United States to wage war, when it was necessary to address the problem of poverty and development, when it was necessary to promote the issue of labor and the environment. But they don't have the courage to claim their freedom. That is why it is necessary for the French democratic forces to act, to assume their responsibility. That is why we are so engaged in the campaign to support Lula," he stated.

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