The 77-year-old, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, took the oath of office before Congress, capping a remarkable political comeback for the metalworker-turned-president less than five years after he was jailed on controversial, since-quashed corruption charges.
BRASILIA - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office Sunday for a third term as Brazil's president, vowing to fight for the poor and the environment and "rebuild the country" after far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro's divisive administration.
Giving a blistering overview of the past four years under Bolsonaro - who snubbed the ceremony, in a break with tradition - Lula said his government would work to undo a legacy of economic decline, surging poverty and funding cuts in health, education and science. Wearing a blue suit and tie, the charismatic but controversial Lula was then driven from Congress to the Planalto presidential palace, escorted by dozens of bodyguards.
He also extended an olive branch to the many Brazilians who did not vote for him in the election, which he won by a razor-thin 50.9 percent to Bolsonaro's 49.1 percent."There aren't two Brazils. We are one country, one people."It is the first time since the end of Brazil's 1965-1985 military dictatorship that an incoming leader has not received the yellow-and-green presidential sash from his predecessor.
Wearing a red hat, attendee Lurdiana Araujo called it a moment of "rebirth" - for both Brazil and Lula, who had become a political pariah until the Supreme Court quashed his corruption convictions in 2021, ruling the lead judge in the case had been biased. Security was exceptionally tight for the ceremony, after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested last week for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives near the capital's airport.Lula got straight to work with a flurry of measures to bolster gun-control regulations slashed by Bolsonaro, revoke the ex-president's rollbacks of environmental protections, and revive the internationally backed Amazon Fund to protect the rainforest.
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