Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has claimed he is the victim of a Big Brother-style investigation that is turning the judicial process into a reality game show.
The Workers Party figurehead – who earlier this month was briefly detained and questioned over corruption allegations – said he and President Dilma Rousseff were fighting an attempted coup by opponents who are using trial by media to try to convict them in the court of public opinion.
The constant attacks, he argued, were an assault on democracy and had made governing Latin America’s biggest nation so difficult that the economy was sliding towards “paralysis”.
“‘Coup’ is the correct term to define what is going on this country,” he said, comparing the current events in Brazil to past moves to unseat the leaders of Paraguay, Honduras and Venezuela. “For a leader to govern, they cannot be preoccupied with day-to-day survival. It’s bloodshed every single day. (And this is supported by) a part of the Brazilian media (that) helps to worsen the environment of hatred on the streets of this country.”
Lula was speaking to a group of about 30 foreign media journalists in Sao Paulo. It appears to be an attempt to circumvent what the ruling party sees as a hostile domestic press at the start of what looks set to be another week of intense pressure on the Workers Party administration.
Later this week, a supreme court judge will rule on whether Da Silva is allowed to rejoin the cabinet.
Tourism minister Henrique Alves, a member of the Democratic Movement, submitted his resignation late on Monday. Alves, an ally of vice-president Michel, wrote to Rousseff in a letter: “The dialogue, I’m afraid to admit, has exhausted.”
Lula, as he is popularly known, was detained and questioned on March 4 in connection with the Lava Jato investigation into a bribery and kickback scandal involving the state-run oil company Petrobras, major construction companies and dozens of politicians. Prosecutors said they were looking into allegations that the former president had received illegal benefits in the form of construction work done at two properties owned by friends or family.
The judge overseeing the case, Sergio Moro, then authorised the leak of taped conversations between him and Rousseff that showed the president had prepared a cabinet post for him. The motives for the appointment were not mentioned, but many interpreted this act as an attempt to give Lula extra legal protection and remove the jurisdiction from Moro because ministers can only be tried at the level of a higher court.
Pressed on why he accepted the chief of staff position so soon after being detained by police, Da Silva said he wanted to push the government away from budget cuts and austerity and towards greater infrastructure spending and measures to improve consumer and business confidence.
He said Rousseff had been trying to persuade him to join her cabinet since last year, but noted wryly that a court invalidated his appointment almost as soon as it was announced. “It was the shortest term of a chief of staff ever,” he joked bitterly.
Questioned about the leak, the former president suggested judge Moro – who has become extremely popular for exposing the rampant corruption among the political and business elite – had become carried away with his celebrity status. He also insinuated a “production chain” between elements of the police, prosecutors and the media.
“We know there are selected leaks of information, but they are only against the PT,” he said, referring to the Portuguese initials for the Workers Party. “Yes, we must fight corruption and investigate who took the money, but is it really necessary to make it a spectacle, to make it a Big Brother show?”