Brazilian President Doesn't Want a 3º Term For Himself, But For Hugo Chávez

Filed in archive Latin Issues on November 5, 2007

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva classified as "pure foolishness" and "lack of politic sensitivity" the conversations about a proposal for a third consecutive presidential term for him, defended by some parliamentarians allied with his government.

The president informed today that he's going to ask his party to decide and assume a position about this subject. On the other hand, da Silva's rejection of a third term has been insistently demanded by leaders of the opposition.

"I think it's foolish to argue about a third term", affirmed da Silva. "At this moment, Brazil doesn't need to talk about 2010, 2014 or 2020. Brazil needs to talk about the good moment that it's living. And we must fulfill our promises to the people, the things that are included in the CAP (Program of Acceleration of the Growth of the Economy) and everything that's going to be done in education and technology. Anything except this, is pure foolishness, lack of politic sensitivity."

Lula talked about a second re-election when he was asked about the changes in the Venezuelan Constitution, which will allow the Venezuelan president to be re-elected for an indefinite number of times. Lula said:

"I can only speak for Brazil. I think that Brazil cannot play with a thing called democracy. Democracy was delayed, and many people has suffered to consolidate it. I was against one re-election, why would I be favorable to a second re-election? ", he inquired.

However, Lula defended the "infinite re-elections" for his Venezuelan colleague, Hugo Chávez. To defend the Chávez's thesis, the Brazilian president cited the British First-Minister, Margaret Thatcher (who remained in the government for 11 years), and the German chancellor Helmut Kohl (12 years).

"It's funny because I saw Margaret Thatcher being re-elected many times, I saw Helmut Kohl in the government for all those years, and I've never seen anybody asking if the proposal of several consecutive terms was bad", said Lula.

Lula is a coward, really. He knows too many consecutive presidential terms are bad, but he's not whiling to tell the truth to his pal, Chávez. What a shame! Well, let's look at the bright side: at least he's not planning to do the same in Brazil.

Source (in Portuguese): O Globo