Ex-President Lula Says He Will Fight 'Until the End' to Run for President

12/14/2017 - 10h50

On Wednesday, December 13, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he will not hide behind a candidacy and that he will fight "until the end" to run for president of Brazil in 2018.

Lula said that, if the investigators of the Lava Jato operation prove that he is guilty, then there will be "no moral conditions" for him to become a candidate; however, he challenged the Prosecutor General's Office to show evidence against him.

"I don't want you people to have a candidate running for president who is hiding in his own candidacy because he is guilty and doesn't want to be arrested. I want to be acquitted so that I can become a candidate. If they show evidence against me in all the accusations, I will have the satisfaction to come here in a meeting of the representatives of my party [the PT] to tell them that I cannot run for president," said Lula.

Lula's speech during the first meeting of PT representatives in the Lower House and in the Senate in Brasília was his first public reaction after the decision made by the TRF-4 regional appeals court to schedule the trial of the three-floor penthouse to January 24.

The former president also said that it would be "flippancy" to run for president next year if there were "any evidence" against him.

"The only thing that I don't want is to be sentenced if I am innocent. That is why I will fight until the end – because I know that the objective is to prevent the PT from returning to office. In Brazil we are still a little numb," said Lula.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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	Adriano Machado/Reuters
	Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a rally at the National Congress of Garbage Collectors in Brasilia