"Pray to God that I will not be the candidate", Said Lula, Warning His Opponents

03/20/2017 - 13h34

In a rally in the backlands of Paraíba, using an emotional tone, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched himself into the 2018 electoral arena and publicly denounced an effort to prevent him from re-applying to the Presidency of the country.

After visiting for the first time a completed passage of the construction site for the transposition of the São Francisco river, the former president criticized the Michel Temer's government and said he is willing to "fight in the streets" against his opponents, referring to the electoral dispute.

"I do not even know if I'll be alive to be a candidate in 2018, but I know they want to prevent me from being a candidate, they're asking God that I will not be a candidate, because if I run, it's to win the election in this country." Said Lula, before thousands of people who crowded the central square of Monteiro, a municipality of 33 thousand inhabitants in the outlands of Paraíba, 305 km from the capital, João Pessoa.

Lula took the the stage alongside former President Dilma Rousseff, allied governors, deputies and senators.

On more than one occasion, the former president made an indirect mention of the suspicions raised against him in the context of operations such as Lava Jato, indirectly claiming that these processes have the objective of politically and legally undermining his candidacy.

Translated by AZAHARA MARTÍN

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