Lula rallies in penthouse, but lacks campaign material

O brazilian president, Lula da Silva, today held a campaign rally in a penitentiary stronghold, 30 kilometers from the Palácio do Planalto, but supporters surprised the lack of campaign material and voters the lack of appeal to vote.

The act in Ceilândia, a poor city in the Federal District, mostly formed by people with roots in the Northeast, hosted Lula's first street rally for the second round of Presidential, scheduled for October 25, after being second in the vote last Sunday.

The PT candidate spent the week in Brasilia to recalculate the campaign strategy, after the frustration of the first round, in which he went after the opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party (PL), for a difference of 2.2 million votes.

Lula's campaign mobilized supporters to seek the vote of the 33 million people, about 20% of the electorate, who did not go to the polls on Sunday.

“ I thought I had something, but the staff only distributed sticker [with Lula’s drawing], but only this”, described Márcia Caldeira, 59 years old, who had a PT candidate cap.

The voter surprised the lack of distribution of pamphlets with Lula's ideas or requests for votes by supporters.

“ I didn’t stop to ask for a vote and I also didn’t see anyone doing it,” she explained, saying that the figure of the Brazilian President is so magnetic, that she, like many others, was more concerned with getting close to the car in which he paraded in the open.

During the rally, Lula defended some of the flags of his campaign, such as the reduction of the working day, with the end of the scale 6×1, currently discussed in the Senate.

The proposal is criticized by the PL and other parties on the right.

“You can’t hear anything,” complained a more distant voter about the sound quality of the truck, while a middle-aged woman contemporised: “My love, just being here is important.”.

Lula went up in an open box van next to the PT candidate to the Federal District Government, Leandro Grass, who competes for the second round with the current governor, Celina Leão, supported by Flávio Bolsonaro.

Lusa traveled about two kilometres, along Lula's rally, talking to shopkeepers, informal salesmen, workers and people at bus stops, many of them not electors of the PT or even indecisive.

They all pointed out that they were not approached by left-wing militants to ask for votes or distribute campaign material.

At the same time, the sound truck played campaign ‘jingles’, like the gospel song “It was just another Silva”, or fast songs to reiterate the 13, number of the Workers’ Party candidate.

Felipe da Costa, 27, who worked as a vigilante at the rally, classified the act as “different”, for being full of supporters, but without anyone asking for votes or distributing campaign material along the avenue.

“ As it is a time of election, it is strange not to see the people ask for a vote, ask for help, because they are in need, right ", told the report, while smoking a cigarette, at the end of the rally, and admitted to being voter of Flávio Bolsonaro.

“ I can't even explain why I'm a voter for Flavius. I voted for Lula in the last election in 2022. I changed my vote, because... these four years I did not see much difference, understand? ", he said.

“ I'm not for either. I want change. And we have to bet on new things ", concluded.

The 51-year-old cleaning lady Antônia de Maria Oliveira arrived at 08:00 for the concentration and, in the almost five hours she remained at the rally, she also saw no distribution of campaign material or supporters trying to convince people to vote on “13”.

“I didn’t see any of it. There was only flagship. Still, it was all very beautiful”, he told, after drinking a sip of water to cool off due to the heat in the commercial center of Ceilândia.

“ I came here today to thank my son, 27 years old. My son is a lawyer because of him”, he said, excited, referring to Lula and ProUni, one of the main social programs for access of low-income young people to universities.

Owner of some retail banks in the city, Rodrigo de Souza, 45 years old, who considers himself a microentrepreneur, did not vote in the elections of 2022 and is still not convinced to vote on the next day 25.

Between one word and another, he considered all candidates very misleading and said he has not yet decided to vote.

“ I still don't know what I'm voting for. I don't know. I'm evaluating. I'm looking at the proposals. One says one thing, another says another. I have to vote for someone who will do things for the country”, he described.

“ So I have to analyze, because I leave home, I'm going to vote and four years later it doesn't change anything. Because nothing has changed in the last four years”, complained.

With a small watch repair shop, Luiz Alberto, 77 years old, classified as “useless” the act before his eyes for being a right-wing person and cited as problems the high rate of Lula’s rejection and the country’s public debt.

Working in the same clothing store, two salesgirls support different candidates. While one filmed the act, excited, to share on social networks, the other watched unbelieving.

“ For me it does not change anything, but I have to respect ", said the woman, who did not want to identify herself.

Fruit seller in the middle of the sidewalk, informal worker Gilberto Lobo, 64 years old, felt infected by the joy of Lula's voters and, although he voted in Flávio Bolsonaro last Sunday, thinks of changing his mind.

“I can tell you that it moved more, than to less”, he said, in timid words, while peeling a khaki, typical fruit of the Brazilian cerrado.

“ Lula's people are united, right? Let's see what happens! I can even change”, he said, saying that “the people are happy” convinced him.

“I didn’t hear much, but I liked it,” he added, when he said he voted in Flavio last Sunday at the request “of the people at home”.