Lula was detained between April 2018 and November 2019 after his corruption conviction.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva admitted on Friday that there had been cases of corruption within the state oil company Petrobras during his presidential mandates (2003-2010) and promised to investigate any deviation if he is elected head of state in October.
“You can’t say there hasn’t been corruption if people have acknowledged” the crimes, the left-wing Workers’ Party candidate told Globo, Brazil’s most-watched news outlet , where his far-right competitor, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, spoke on Monday.
Lula, favored for the October 2 poll (47% against 32% for Mr. Bolsonaro according to an August 18 Datafolha poll), was visibly nervous at the start of the interview, and read notes to answer on corruption .
“I now have the opportunity for the first time to talk openly with the people, live … corruption only appears when you allow it to be investigated,” he said.
He then harshly criticized the anti-corruption operation Lava Jato (express washing), launched in 2016 to investigate the embezzlement of Petrobras contracts, because according to him “it has gone beyond the sphere of investigation and entered the sphere politics” to condemn him.
Lula was detained between April 2018 and November 2019 after his corruption conviction. He regained all his political rights in 2021, when the Supreme Court overturned his convictions, finding that the court which tried him at first instance was incompetent.
Fight against corruption
The PT candidate also slammed the incumbent president, calling him a “court jester” because of his reliance on a few parties to govern.
He also assured that the ticket he forms with Geraldo Alckmin, ex-governor of Sao Paulo of center-right (which he had beaten in the presidential election of 2006), would allow “greater economic stability” and “credibility internal and external”, even if he did not dwell on the measures he would take in the event of an election, despite questions from journalists.
Lula also said polarization was ‘healthy’ and ‘different from incitement to hatred’, while calling on the country to ‘pacify’ after Jair Bolsonaro’s first term marked by high tensions between supporters and opponents of the far-right leader.
Lula further cited the creation of several access to information mechanisms and investigative bodies under his government as proof of his alleged commitment to the fight against corruption. The AFP verification team found that one of the bodies cited, the COAF, had been created by a previous government.