00:00Brazil's short official election campaign season began on Sunday, August 16th.
00:05Tens of thousands of people came out to see incumbent president Lula da Silva in his hometown
00:10in São Fernando do Campo.
00:12Our correspondent Brea Mir has more.
00:16Brazil's traditionally short election campaign season kicked off on Sunday, August 16th,
00:22as tens of thousands of supporters came out to see Lula deliver his first official campaign
00:26speech for the 2026 elections in Vila Euclides Stadium, a place that has historic significance
00:33for the organized working class left.
00:36This is very important. This moment will go down in history.
00:40This place is symbolically important as the location where it all began.
00:43It's where during the 1970s, Lula led the workers in a fight for their rights.
00:48As Brazil's U.S.-backed military dictatorship began to wane in 1979,
00:53a young metal workers union leader named Lula da Silva called a wildcat strike in São Paulo's ABC
00:59region, in the heart of national industrial production. Soon other unions joined in,
01:05the country ground to a halt, and the nation turned its eyes to Vila Euclides Stadium,
01:10where Lula presided over assemblies with tens of thousands of striking workers.
01:16This is where it all started.
01:18We made history here, starting in 1979, and the founding of the PT. And now we've returned here,
01:24from far away, to honor our president who is heading for his fourth term.
01:3046 years after his last strike assembly, Lula managed to fill Vila Euclides Stadium once again,
01:36to kick off what will undoubtedly be the last election campaign of his career.
01:44I'm here to tell you that I'm the first president of the republic to be elected three times.
01:49It never happened before in our country.
01:54There are many people who ask, why does Lula want another mandate?
02:03I want to tell you the following, as long as I live, I will not allow myself to stop fighting.
02:10I will allow myself, I will not allow myself to stop fighting.
02:16Brazil's elections will take place on October 4th. Brian Meir, TELASUR, São Bernardo do Campo.
Comments