The Economist: Brazilians will consider the election illegitimate if Lula does not run.

247 - The world's leading liberal magazine, the British publication The Economist, published a report this Thursday on the Brazilian presidential elections and Lula. According to the publication, there is "a risk that Brazilians will consider the election illegitimate if Lula cannot run." The magazine adds: "And the chaos in the courts reinforces concerns that the judiciary has become merely a forum for partisan politics."

The magazine acknowledges, in the first paragraph of the report, Lula's relevance to the country, something denied by the local conservative press: "When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finished his term as president of Brazil in 2011, his approval rating was 83%. His social programs and a commodities boom helped lift 30 million people out of poverty. He hopes to run for president again in an October election and leads the polls by a huge margin." 

"Judges issue contradictory decisions on the release of Brazil's former president" is the headline of the report. "The legal battle has put Lula back at the center of the campaign," says the text from one of the longest-running and most respected news outlets in the world.

"In a country where only the Supreme Federal Court, with 87.000 cases per year, can judge criminal proceedings against authorities, allowing many accused of corruption to walk freely, the 12-year prison sentence against Lula seems too harsh," the article concludes.

Founded in September 1843, the liberal-leaning magazine is owned by The Economist Group and a group of independent shareholders, including the Rothschild family. Influential executives and world-renowned political leaders are among its 1,5 million weekly readers.

Read the full report. here.