Lula on Ciro Gomes: after taking so many kicks, there comes a time when you respond.
Former President Lula rejected the behavior of former minister Ciro Gomes and stated that, "if Ciro had been humble and hadn't gone to France, the PT could have been first in 2018," referring to the period after the first round, when Ciro did not declare support for Fernando Haddad in the second round against Bolsonaro.
247 - Former President Lula, in an interview given this Thursday (4) to the Metrópoles portal, rejected the behavior of former minister Ciro Gomes and recalled that, “if Ciro were humble and did not go to France, the PT could be first in 2018”, referring to the fact that Ciro did not declare support for Fernando Haddad in the second round against Jair Bolsonaro.
"If the people want you to win, then they should vote for you in the first round," he assessed, referring to the fact that Ciro, in the opinion polls at the time, was winning against Bolsonaro in the second round, but not in the first.
"If I had been a candidate, if [Luís Roberto] Barroso [Supreme Court] hadn't made that mess of including me under the 'clean slate' law, I obviously would have won the election in the first round," the former president added.
Lula opened up when questioned about his relationship with Ciro when the politician from Ceará was a minister in his government. He recalled that Ciro Gomes "was a comrade" and expressed his gratitude to him.
“When Ciro Gomes was elected federal deputy in 2010, I didn’t want him to take office; I wanted him to go to the BNDES, but he didn’t want to. I said that the Chamber wasn’t the place for him, because of the way he behaves politically, from a psychological point of view, but he went anyway,” Lula recalled.
However, Lula criticized Ciro's current aggressiveness towards the Workers' Party. "I always say that I can talk to Ciro anytime, and he gives interviews saying 'the PT can go to hell'," he lamented.
"He has already called a PT candidate a whore, a cow, and hit a PT supporter on the head with a flag. I have respect and consideration for him, but he doesn't respect me," she criticized.
Pandemic
He assessed Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic and condemned his stance: "Bolsonaro was not prepared to govern Brazil, he insists on putting the wrong people in charge. Look at the Minister of the Environment (Ricardo Salles), who wants to destroy the environment, the person responsible for health doesn't even know what he's doing there."
"Bolsonaro doesn't give significance to the seriousness of what this virus represents. He should have already formed a committee of governors, but he only insults people and hasn't even transferred funds to the states," he added.
The Manifest
Lula also commented on the criticism he received for their non-adherence to the "Together" manifesto.
According to him, the manifesto does not mention Bolsonaro's impeachment nor does it condemn the government's harmful economic policy. "And the one who really runs this government is [Paulo] Guedes, Bolsonaro is the court jester," he said.
Lula emphasized that the manifesto "only speaks of democracy in a very generic way." He added that, "when part of society tries to mobilize, part of the elite tries to control the process," referring to the millionaire businessmen who signed the text.
See the full interview: