Brazil’s Lula receives endorsement of moderate candidate

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, currently bidding to return to the job he held between 2003-2010, received on Thursday the endorsement of moderate candidate André Janones

APTOPIX Brazil Elections (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is campaigning to return to the job he held between 2003-2010, on Thursday received an endorsement from moderate André Janones who had been expected to run himself.

Da Silva, who is commonly known as Lula, and Janones made the announcement in a live broadcast, shortly before they were scheduled to hold a press conference in Sao Paulo.

“I stop my bid and unify it with former President Lula’s,” Janones, a social media phenomenon with 2 million followers on Instagram and 8 million on Facebook, said.

His endorsement could help push the leftist former leader closer to an outright victory against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Da Silva currently leads all polls; the most recent survey from Datafolha showed him with 47% support in the first-round vote on Oct. 3.

By contrast, the same poll showed Janones with 2% support. It was conducted July 27 and 28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

On Thursday, Janones also said he could not support Bolsonaro, who he accused of increasing spending through year-end merely to boost his reelection chances.

“I cannot support a president who has used people's hunger to boost his chances,” Janones said.