Lula's coming to power carried out a very significant historic transformation for a huge number of people who supported the coming of a leftist party to power. The struggles arising from the times of the military dictatorship and the limitations of political action by sectors already installed in power form the broadest field of historical situations that determined the electoral victory of the Workers' Party in the year of 2002.
A little before that, we know that the formation of the political base of the party that Lula represented had great influence and action with unions and organized social movements. In fact, this action still exists and supports the bet that Rousseff's candidacy is politically viable. On the other hand, we must emphasize that this same bet is also consolidated through the so-called “Lulismo”, a recent phenomenon in the country's political history.
In more general terms, we can attribute this situation to the administrative efficiency that marked the PT's performance before reaching the presidency. The triumph in large capitals and the offering of unprecedented programs strengthened the idea that the Workers' Party had a broader and more effective project, attracting in a way competent a portion of the middle classes who still viewed this type of transformation with suspicion or who already felt some weariness in the political performance of more traditional ones.
Alongside administrative efficiency, we must also point out that the old polarizing game between "left" and "right" it lost its meaning as the PT and Lula himself made room for several inflections in his speech and acting. Historically, the left had in Brazil and in other parts of the world the function of effectively criticizing the functioning of the capitalist system and offer other proposals that had, at least, the desire to seek a more deep.
Over time, the collapse of socialist experiences in other regions of the world played a decisive role in left-wing parties, outside and inside Brazil, sought a shift that would respond to the inefficiency observed in others contexts. At the same time, the interest in reaching large parts of society turned out to be another factor, consciously or not, necessary for the old yearning for power to come to fruition in a space of shorter time.
When Lula came to power, we saw that the capacity to expand the bases of political, social and party support established the arrival of the new president to power. In a way, this situation did not imply an advance of democracy, since the same fundamental behavior appears among the electorate, since the return of the democratic regime: the legends and ideologies lost space to bet on a charismatic figure that fits the aspirations of the moment.
Not by chance, we see that the good results of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva's government managed to overcome the scandals of corruption that toppled key PT figures and undermined the loyalty of some who saw the party before the president. This would be the first vigorous manifestation of such “Lulism”. The other appears now, when Dilma Rousseff's candidacy is based her campaign on the promise of establishing the continuity of the achievements that mark Lula's presence in power.
Briefly, we can see that “Lulism” emerges as a trend that combines the project for the arrival of the PT to power and the recognition of a certain behavior of the national electorate. Meanwhile, a motley crew of columnists wastes their time trying to revive the old parameters of struggle between "left" and "right" that most resemble the scenario of a military dictatorship that does not more exists.
We then see an unreal trench warfare, in which an attempt is made to sell a split in ideologies that for a long time has not manifested itself in the spaces of political action. To attest this, it is enough to observe the latest political agreements and slates that were formed in the last electoral processes or in the alliances that determined the approval of certain laws. The design differences and the political discussion itself were scrapped by the immediate political results of administrative and financial effectiveness.
Projecting a future scenario without Lula, we could see more clearly the inability that the PT and the left themselves would have in launching other leaders. Likewise, right-wing parties do not currently offer an option of choice that could immediately impact a significant portion of the population. Thus, “Lulism” reveals the existence of a crisis in which the exercise of democracy is not equivalent to the criticality necessary for the development of the policy itself.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/o-lulismo-cenario-politico-brasileiro.htm
