Brazil on alert as government sees risk of fresh protests stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Trailing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in major opinion polls, Jair Bolsonaro ramps up rhetoric, describing Argentina and Venezuela as examples of what’s going wrong in the region.
Ensuring 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries descend on one chosen city over the course of 16 days is a logistical challenge at the best of times. Now consider doing it at the tail end of a global pandemic that’s upended airlines’ flight schedules, closed international borders and made any movement without jabs and multiple Covid tests impossible. For hundreds of Olympic organizing officials eyeing the start of the Tokyo Games in just 18 days it’s a major headache. Forget about medal tallies and post-race parties (to the limited extent they’re permitted at all), just getting to Japan on time is half the battle.
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The former president stopped short of announcing plans to run in the 2022 election in his first speech after corruption convictions were annulled by a Supreme Court justice, clearing the way for his comeback.
“I don’t have time to think about a candidacy in 2022,” Lula said at a press conference on Wednesday. “That’s a discussion for the future.”
Lula added that he’s focused on uniting the left around a name for 2022, which didn’t happen in 2018.
If confirmed, the candidacy of the 75-year-old former president is likely to drive a wedge in a country already grappling with with another devastating wave of Covid-19 and its ensuing economic toll. It would also increase chances that moderates may be again squeezed out of the competition and could add to concern that Bolsonaro will abandon his market-friendly reform agenda and push for populist measures instead.