Sao Paulo: Brazil's national anthem will be played on trumpets and snares during Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's inauguration on January 1. Then, a different song with lyrics that criticise outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro will be heard on the streets.
Jair needs to leave, it's time for Jair to leave! lyrics state. "Pick up your things, get on the road, and leave!"
Tens of thousands of people sang the well-known song all night long when Lula defeated Bolsonaro in the election on October 30, propelling it to the top of Spotify's Brazilian chart and demonstrating one way that many Brazilians aren't yet willing to reach out and make peace.
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It will be easier said than done to reconcile Brazil's fractured society. Those who joined forces after Bolsonaro repeatedly pushed the limits of the fourth-largest democracy in the world and who trusted the divisive 77-year-old to govern alongside moderates are losing faith in Lula because his Cabinet appointments to date favour leftists and adherents of his Workers' Party.
Deals with agribusiness, evangelicals, and ex-Bolsonaro allies are a necessary part of Brazilian government. Half-hearted Lula supporters may find it frustrating, but that is the situation they are in, according to Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo.
Of course, Bolsonaro's supporters on the far right are hardly the model of post-election amity. Many protesters across the country who disagree with the election results want Lula's inauguration to be delayed.
The election in Brazil in October, which pitted two bitter rivals against one another, was the closest in more than three decades. On October 30, as tens of thousands gathered outside Lula's hotel in Sao Paulo to celebrate his victory and Bolsonaro's defeat, Lula gave his victory speech, saying that "there are not two Brazils."
A few days later, leftists and moderates once again wore the country's yellow soccer jersey to support their team at the World Cup, which was encouraging for Lula's efforts to build bridges. The shirt has been an anti-left symbol for almost ten years and has frequently been seen in demonstrations against Lula and in support of Bolsonaro.
In an effort to take back the country, Lula and his allies also wore yellow shirts. Lula posted pictures of himself on social media with the caption, "The colours of 213 million people who love this country." As news of the team's extravagant performances spread, salesman Elias Gaspar claimed that yellow jerseys began to fly off his rack.
Gaspar, 43, stated on December 4 that "before the World Cup I would sell on average six blue shirts and four yellow shirts out of every ten." "Now, almost everything is yellow."
Soccer served as a momentary unifying factor. After an unexpected penalty shootout loss to Croatia in the quarterfinals, Brazil left the tournament earlier than anticipated, and the majority of Brazilians put their jerseys back in their drawers. The only people still wearing the national colours are Bolsonaro's supporters.
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Instead of stirring up conflict, Lula has mostly refrained from publicly criticising Bolsonaro or his supporters and has instead centred his speeches on assisting the most marginalised Brazilians once he takes back the position he held from 2003 to 2010. Thoughts that pitted us against them have occasionally escaped his lips. On December 22, as he named new ministers, he declared that Bolsonarismo must be defeated on the streets of Brazil because it is still present and angry among those who refuse to accept the electoral defeat.
Lula chose José Mcio Monteiro, a conservative, as defence minister after Bolsonaro spent four years trying to win the support of the military.
Anielle Franco, the sister of murdered Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco, was appointed minister of racial equality, among other Lula appointments that appear to have been made to appease his supporters and party. Additionally, he appointed longtime ally Aloizio Mercadante to lead the nation's development bank, a position that business leaders had anticipated staying out of Workers' Party hands.
Building a Cabinet would be difficult, according to Gleisi Hoffmann, the chairwoman of Lula's Workers' Party, even if Lula only chose progressives. Given that Lula has declared he won't seek reelection in 2026, some potential ministers' status as presidential candidates further complicates matters.
See what happens when we bring in a dozen other parties. We have our differences within the Workers' Party. Hoffmann said this on her social media platforms on December 16. It requires time because it's a puzzle.
That might provide some insight into why there will be nearly 37 more ministries.
Brazilian moderates, a group that grew wary of Lula after the extensive Car Wash corruption investigation landed him in jail in 2018, were swayed by centrist endorsements from former environment minister Marina Silva and Simone Tebet, who came in third in the first round of the presidential race. He narrowly defeated Bolsonaro by less than two percentage points with their help. Many had hoped that they would be named ministers right away, but negotiations have taken longer than expected.
Political consultant Thomas Traumann claimed that delays were due to the fact that the negotiations for the positions were heavily influenced by the president-elect.
Traumann said, "People who helped him, like Marina and Simone, will be less respected than they would have been had they been appointed soon after he won. Lula's good fortune is that moderates will view his administration the same way that many leftist Democrats view (U.S. President Joe) Biden: they may not like what they see, but it is preferable to the alternative.
According to Brian Ott, a professor of communication at Missouri State University who has studied the stratifying effects of social media on American political discourse, Biden's attempt to bridge the political divide could provide an instructive, if depressing, model.
Early in his term as president, Biden did not hide the fact that he was leading a country that was deeply divided. He played up his credentials as a relic of a time when Democrats and Republicans could spar on the Senate floor before retreating to the dining room to work out compromises.
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Biden and politicians in countries with 51% of the population, like Brazil, may no longer have effective ways to spread broad-based messages without alienating their supporters, according to Ott. "People don't have to be exposed to different points because of how intensely and deeply divided politics are in this time period on a cultural level."
Lula named 16 new ministers on December 22, bringing his total to 21. Tebet and Silva are not among them.
He advised his appointees to hire staff members from a variety of backgrounds, saying "It is harder to assemble a government than to win elections." We are working to create a government that, to the greatest extent possible, reflects the political forces that took part in our campaign.
He continued, saying that those who contributed but were not yet recognised owe a debt for "daring to stick their necks out to confront fascism."
Nevertheless, a lot of the new Lula voters are already tempted to leave. One of them is Thereza Bittencourt, 65, who spoke at a Rio military club and expressed her concern over the early signs.
"My club friends were very critical of me because I cast my ballot for Lula. They all decided on Bolsonaro. Bittencourt said as she sipped her caipirinha, "I told them the management of the economy would be better. "Goodbye, if I only see Workers' Party officials in the government."