During a conversation with activists in the Aglomerado da Serra community, on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, Lula expressed his concern about the risk of the National Congress approving such a proposal. “Another thing we must know is that if we vote in Congress, we run the risk of an amnesty. Congress, as you know, is not a Congress elected by the popular sectors,” he noted. He acknowledged that Parliament has helped his government and that it has approved almost everything it wanted, “but the extreme right still has a lot of power. It’s a battle that the people must also fight,” he insisted.
The opposition in the National Congress is working to vote on a bill that would pardon those convicted of the anti-democratic attacks of January 8, 2023, and would benefit former President Jair Bolsonaro if he is convicted by the Supreme Federal Court for masterminding the coup plot. Also during his talk with activists, Lula affirmed that the peripheries must get involved in other national issues. “This is a moment when we need to politicize our communities,” he said. He also questioned those who advocate for US interference in Brazil, calling them “false patriots,” without naming names. Now we see false patriots in the United States asking President Donald Trump to intervene in Brazil, he noted.
“Those who campaigned wrapped in the national flag, claiming to be patriots, are now wrapped in the American flag, calling on Trump to intervene in Brazil,” he emphasized. Recently, the founder of the ruling Workers’ Party criticized Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has been living in the United States for six months and advocates for retaliation against Brazilian officials involved in the trial of his father (Jair) for an attempted coup. Since August 6, several Brazilian products have been subject to a 50 percent tax upon entry into the United States, a decision by Trump, who is demanding an end to the legal proceedings against Bolsonaro. During the event, First Lady Rosângela Lula da Silva, popularly known as Janja, also requested support from activists with government communications, as their work cannot depend solely on the publication of institutional videos on social media. Lula arrived in Belo Horizonte for his seventh visit to Minas Gerais in 2025. Last week, he attended the inauguration of Newton Cardoso Avenue and announced the delivery of millions of dollars in funding for the Contagem metro in the Metropolitan Region.
