Maringoni: Lula is shining in the Northeast.

By Gilberto Maringoni, on Facebook

Lula is shining during his visit to the Northeast. The scenes of the former president interacting with the people are impressive.

He attacks the situation mercilessly. "The country doesn't have to be the mess it is," he says, in language clear to everyone.

We have never had another leader in our history with such a capacity for dialogue with the common people. Not even Getúlio.

Lula is breaking through all the bubbles and seems to galvanize a collective will among those who have lost hope, in a kind of reconnection of the Nation with itself.

The hopeless and desperate turn to him in search of uncertain "good times" that exist in the collective imagination, and in contrast to the catastrophe of the Temer government and its years in the Planalto Palace.

At the same time, the former president excels at what he is unbeatable at. He pushes the limits on one side and eases off on the other.

In an interview on Mário Kertèsz's radio program, on Friday morning (18), he came out with this:

“I know Meirelles well. He’s a market man. When Meirelles accepted to be my minister, president of the Central Bank, he had been the most voted federal deputy for the PSDB in Goiás. I convinced him (…) and I owe Meirelles a great deal of gratitude. A great deal. For the loyalty with which he behaved when he worked with me. (…) I think Meirelles would have contributed to Dilma.”

This is pure Lulaism. He repeated aloud what he has been doing since the "Letter to the Brazilians" in 2002, promising change to those at the bottom and maintaining the status quo for those at the top.

Faced with two contradictory options, Lula chooses both and waits to see what happens, smoothing everything over with his unparalleled skill. If he were Hamlet, he wouldn't get bogged down in "To be or not to be." He would adopt both options.

The former president doesn't seem to be on the same wavelength when making both speeches. For the general public, he's boosting popular self-esteem during a period of national deconstruction. It's dazzling.

The interview with Mario Kertész, in turn, embodies a different logic: the metric for perpetual agreements and damage control, designed for a specific and restricted audience. It's simplistic to say that he has a speech for every audience.

The former metalworker operates within a narrow institutional framework, pressured by the prospect of a judicial conviction and the real possibility of winning in 2018, if the contest is even minimally clean. And this leads him to issue a double message amidst the opposing fire. He declares war and raises the white flag at the same time.

A new Workers' Party administration risks facing even greater setbacks in terms of confrontations than the 2003-07 term. This will not happen solely due to the former president's wishes, but because the balance of power is worse and because the ruling classes are unified, unlike what occurred 15 years ago.

Even so, big capital cannot swallow him up under normal conditions. Someone with his impressive legitimacy could one day become uncontrollable.

The real and concrete difference with Lula is his campaign. So far, and no matter how hard he tries, no significant bourgeois faction has the prospect of joining his cause.

Devastating reports on television news, newspaper and magazine headlines, and obscure magistrates desperate for attention—everything weighs against it.

It is the materialization of greater aggressiveness on the part of capital in times of crisis, in a new cycle of accumulation and concentration on a global scale.

Therefore, Lula's appeals for a very broad front, encompassing both the poor and high finance, are futile, as evidenced by his nod to Meirelles, his protégé.

Combining criticism of the Workers' Party member's two behaviors—preaching to broad popular segments and attempting to attract big capital—into a single channel works for us, within our bubbles.

For Lula and his growing audiences, they seem to be different worlds.

To denounce his behavior as "class betrayal" or anything of the sort is utterly pointless. Lula has already shown: he does not intend to bring about any social transformation, but rather to seek agreements without struggle.

He's warning anyone who wants to understand. His intention is clear, and it's silly to complain about it.

Although many people have more efficient formulas in mind, he's the one who attracts crowds and breaks through bubbles.

It remains to be seen whether his tactic of inviting the coup plotters—since Meirelles represents the heart of the 2016 rupture—for tea and toast will be effective in times of deep depression, a scenario far worse than the 2002 crisis.