Published on: 10/31/2022 – 08:04 At the age of 77, after having chained moments of glory and reversals of fortune while passing through prison, Lula, unsinkable icon of the Latin American left, will return to the presidential palace of BrasÃlia. “It’s the most important day of my life,” Lula said as he voted on Sunday, hours before being named the winner of the ballot, after months of being the frontrunner in the election against the President of outgoing extreme right Jair Bolsonaro. At 77, after having chained moments of glory and reverses of fortune while going through prison, Lula, unsinkable icon of the Latin American left, will therefore return to the presidential palace in Brasilia. Sixth presidential campaignThe comeback of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was in power for two terms (2003-2010) and saw his 6th presidential campaign lead him back to the supreme office, is a first in recent history from Brazil. But Lula, who had an extraordinary destiny, has come a long way. Sentenced for corruption in the biggest scandal in the history of Brazil, “Lavage express”, he had been imprisoned for 580 days, from April 2018 to November 2019. The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) has always said he is the victim of a political plot which allowed Jair Bolsonaro to be elected to the presidency in 2018 when he was the big favorite. In March 2021 , he could once again dream of a brilliant revenge. The Supreme Court quashed or time-barred his convictions, allowing him to recover his political rights, without exonerating him. For the UN Human Rights Committee, the investigation and prosecution of Lula had violated his right to be judged by an impartial tribunal.”Brazil happy again”Today, 12 years after leaving power on a stratospheric rate of favorable opinions (87%), the stainless Lula wants to make “Brazil happy again”. This charismatic tribune with a hoarse voice traveled the immense country, equipped with a bulletproof vest, and fought a fierce duel against his lifelong enemy, Bolsonaro. Lula remains perceived as “close to the people ” and is still much loved, especially in the poor regions of the Northeast, his historic stronghold. But he is also hated by some Brazilians for whom he forever embodies corruption. Jair Bolsonaro, who had played a lot on the hatred of the PT to be elected in 2018, constantly called him a “thief” and “ex-prisoner” during their debates. Nothing predisposed Lula, this youngest of a sibling of eight children, born on October 27, 1945 into a family of poor farmers in Pernambuco (north-east), to such a destiny. to escape poverty. A traveling salesman then a metalworker at 14, he lost his left little finger in a work accident. At 21, he joined the metalworkers’ union and led the great strikes of the late 1970s, full military dictatorship (1964-1985).Co-founder of the PT in the early 1980s, he ran for the first time in the presidential election in 1989 and narrowly failed.After two more failures, in 1994 and 1998, the fourth attempt will be the good one, in October 2002. He was re-elected in 2006. First Head of State A working-class Brazilian, he implemented ambitious social programs, thanks to years of growth driven by the commodity boom. Under his two terms, nearly 30 million Brazilians emerged from poverty. Lula also embodied a country that opened up to the world, and gave Brazil international stature with, in particular, the World Cup (2014) and the Olympic Games (2016) in Rio de Janeiro.Alliance and compromiseIdealist but pragmatic, Lula is a past master in the art of forging alliances that are sometimes unnatural. For this presidential election, his running mate is a centrist technocrat able to reassure economic circles: Geraldo Alckmin, his opponent in previous elections. In March 2016, his attempt to return to business as minister of his runner-up, Dilma Rousseff, had was a bitter failure, as was her dismissal in August. In October 2011, he suffered from laryngeal cancer. In February 2017, the ex-president suffered an intimate ordeal with the death of his wife Marisa Leticia Rocco. But Lula found a new love, Rosangela da Silva, nicknamed “Janja”, a 21-year-old sociologist from the PT. his youngest, whom he married in May. “I’m in love with her as if I were 20,” he said of the woman who took an active part in his campaign. With AFP