Lula rallies behind Rousseff

Published Sep 16, 2014

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Rio de Janeiro - Influential former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday rallied behind successor Dilma Rousseff as she chases re-election next month amid a corruption scandal and weak economy.

The ever-popular Lula was mobbed in central Rio as he made a vociferous defence of Rousseff, who is neck and neck with environmentalist opponent Marina Silva ahead of the October 5 polls.

With the outcome too close to call, recent days have seen the rival camps sharpen their attacks on each other's candidates, with a corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras ramping up the pressure on the incumbent.

Silva, formerly environment minister under Lula, has sought to make capital out of the corruption claims after a former Petrobras director accused 50 politicians, most of them from Rousseff's Workers Party (PT), of receiving billions of dollars in bribes.

Rousseff, whom Lula chose as his heir on standing down after two terms in 2010, has denied any knowledge of the sweeteners scheme.

Lula verbally attacked Silva for indicating that, if elected, she will not make a priority the exploration of potentially lucrative oil deposits lying beneath the south Atlantic.

The former leader told the 5 000 people who attended a Rio rally: “Oil is Brazil's passport to the future.”

Petrobras says exploiting the so-called pre-salt deposits will allow crude production to double to beyond four million barrels per day by 2020, making Brazil a net oil exporter.

Without naming Silva, Lula asked the partisan crowd: “Who would not want to bring this project on stream?”

Clad in a heavy-duty orange Petrobras shirt, Lula said: “If there were mistakes (leading to corruption at Petrobras), there must be an investigation and those guilty sent to jail.”

But he added that Brazilians should be proud of the state oil giant.

Silva placed third in the 2010 election after taking 20 percent of votes standing on the Green Party ticket.

Despite years spent in the ruling PT many of the party's voters now see Socialist Party candidate Silva as having moved too close to business - one of her main backers is Itau bank heiress Maria Alice Setubal.

Many at the rally wore stickers saying, “Marina out - and take Itau with you”.

Lula, 68, said only victory for Rousseff would help South America's largest economy, currently in recession, according to latest figures.

Silva inherited the Socialist mantle from Eduardo Campos, who died in a plane crash last month.

Rousseff backers used Monday's rally to accuse rivals of aiming to privatise Petrobras, set to reap a potential bounty of hundreds of billions of dollars over 35 years from the pre-salt.

Congress last year voted to earmark all “pre-salt” royalties for public education and healthcare. Lula's government had passed a law ensuring all pre-salt operations had a minimum 60 percent Brazilian involvement.

“Dilma means continuity and stability. The economy has slipped back, but overall she and Lula, who saw her as his best lieutenant to succeed her, have led us forward,” union official Luzimar Wanderley Moreno told AFP.

Colleague Carlos Jose de Melo, 47, concurred.

“A vote for Rousseff is a vote for working people. A vote for Marina Silva is to choose someone who will deliver Brazil to the bankers,” he insisted. - Sapa-AFP

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