President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that Brazil is “at war” with digital platforms, referencing the rise of a “radicalized and deceitful far-right.”
“Now we have a far right that is radicalized, deceitful, and brazen enough to spread slander without fear. Everyone is offended daily; we have to confront this. We are in a war—it’s us against the digital platform companies,” said Lula during the Workers’ Party’s 45th anniversary celebration on Saturday morning (22) in Rio de Janeiro.
“Brazilians will govern as we see fit. No one, not even those platform moguls who think they control the world, will make us change our course,” added the president.
Lula’s comments followed his criticism of US President Donald Trump, an ally of billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter) and openly supports the far right.
Lula reiterated his long-standing critique of US intervention in other countries, stating that Trump wants to “become an emperor of the world.”
“Today, what the US says is opposite to what it claimed in the 1980s. ‘America for the Americans,’ the Panama Canal is theirs, Canada is no longer a country, it’s a state, and Greenland belongs to them. Mexico no longer has the Gulf; the Gulf is American,” he remarked.
“This individual [Trump] was not elected to be the world’s sheriff; he was elected to govern the United States, so let him govern. We will govern Brazil,” Lula added.
No Amnesty
The celebration also featured chants of “no amnesty” from both activists and officials. “They haven’t even been convicted, and they’re already asking for amnesty. They should be seeking innocence. They will be tried; if found guilty, they will be convicted and have to face the consequences of their actions against so many innocent people,” said Lula.
The statement follows former president Jair Bolsonaro’s indictment by the Attorney General’s Office, submitted to the Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday (18). The indictment lists 34 individuals accused by the Federal Police of involvement in the coup attempt leading to the January 8 events. Besides Bolsonaro, the Federal Police identified seven other key participants in the coup plot.
According to the report, “everyone was aware of the larger plan and its actions aimed at promoting social instability and achieving institutional rupture.”
Workers’ Party criticism
At one point, Lula urged his party’s politicians to spend more time on the ground in the outskirts. “Those of us who have been in the Workers’ Party for a while remember how proud we were of being organized into neighborhood, village, workplace, and study groups. There were as many as 1,800 party cells. Unfortunately, this is no longer a daily practice in the party,” said Lula.
The president’s speech comes amid a crisis in his popularity, according to a poll released by the Brazilian Datafolha Institute on the 14th. Among those surveyed, 24% approve of Lula’s government, while 41% disapprove. This marks the worst approval rating and the highest disapproval level in the president’s three terms in office.
“The question I need to ask each one of us: 45 years on, are we making a difference in the daily lives of working men and women? The truth is we need to return to discussing politics in factories, workplaces, and wherever the working class is, both in the city and the countryside,” stated Lula.
