Crucifixion and Redemption of Lula da Silva                                                                                                    (2008-2010 Multimedia project)

The workman Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made history when he became Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader since Salvador Allende (Chile, 1973). On the back of a hard-fought twenty year struggle for social transformations, Lula and his PT (the Brazilian workers party) won an euphoric victory for the presidency of Brazil with 62 percent of the people’s vote, in 2002.

But that wasn’t the end of the history. In 2005, the government of Lula da Silva suffered the heavy impact of a series of corruption accusations, culminating with the fall of his state secretary, the former head of the workers party. The crisis was so severe that some feared the president’s impeachment. It seemed Lula had lost his shine and it was the down of his era.

The government of Lula da Silva did not decline, though. It has gradually recovered during the following years, lifting the once devastated Brazilian economy to the status of stabilization by achieving significant growth, meaning the raise of Brazil as a one of the majors international players of today.

The workman-president has conquered an overall international respect while improved enormously the optimism and the hope of the Brazilian people. His leadership, reinforced by the economic and social achievements, has regained the people’s esteem reaching in 2010 more than 80% of popular approval, despite the constant “fire” from the conservative press and the backwards politicians, representant of the old Brazil.