RIO DE JANEIRO.- Rio de Janeiro starts this Sunday three days of carnival parades with a tribute to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an event labeled by the opposition as electoral propaganda in a year in which the president will seek re-election.
The parades of the 12 main samba “schools”—a fierce competition with giant floats, percussion and scantily clad samba queens—are the highlight of the Rio Carnival.
Each school chooses a theme each year, often linked to Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian heritage or social or cultural issues.
Niteroi academics, who will be the first to parade on Sunday, have decided to pay tribute to Lula, the first time that a sitting president is the subject of a tribute on the famous Sambódromo avenue.
Lula’s wife, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, plans to participate in the parade, and according to local press the leftist president will watch it from one of the VIP boxes along the 700-meter avenue.
Public rehearsals of the show ignited controversy by showing mocking images of former President Jair Bolsonaro on a screen.
The opposition denounced the parade as equivalent to a campaign event months before the official one begins in August, and demanded that public funding for the samba school be cut.
Justice warns
Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth term in the October elections. The far-right Bolsonaro has anointed his eldest son, Flávio, current senator, as his political heir and presidential candidate.
The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) unanimously rejected on Thursday the requests presented by two opposition parties to prevent Acadómicos de Niteroi – a neighboring city of Rio – from parading on Sunday, considering that the spectacle constitutes an “early electoral campaign.”
The court said it could not prevent a parade that has not yet taken place as there was no evidence of violation of electoral law, but warned it could investigate irregularities after the spectacle.
“At this time there is no concrete evidence of an early electoral campaign or circumstances that allow us to affirm with certainty that irregularities occurred,” judge Estela Aranha ruled, according to a statement.
Members of the court warned that they were not giving anyone a “green light,” that the case is still ongoing and that the attorney general has been notified.
Refrain from electoral slogans
Given the climate of concern, the Brazilian Presidency warned officials attending carnival events in a statement on Friday to “refrain from making statements that could be characterized as early electoral propaganda.”
Lula’s Workers’ Party on Saturday issued guidelines to avoid clothing, banners, campaign slogans or “expressions that constitute offense to opponents.”
The parade, with around 3,000 people, presents different scenes from Lula’s life, from his humble beginnings in northeastern Brazil to his time as a worker and union leader.
The accompanying samba chants “Olé, olé, olé, olá; Lula, Lula!”, and proclaims “no amnesty.”
This last phrase is a reference to the efforts of Bolsonaro’s supporters to obtain the suspension of his 27-year prison sentence for attempted coup d’état.
“This is not propaganda, it is a tribute,” Hamilton Junior, one of the school’s directors, told AFP.
He stated that it is the story of a man who “faced many adversities and became one of the greatest presidents of Brazil.”
