I assure you that I have the same strength as I had when I was 30, says Lula at a press conference during a visit to Indonesia.
And I will stand for a fourth term in Brazil.
The former metalworker Lula left power with sky-high opinion polls, and with iconic status among Latin America's left, after his first two terms 2003–2010 when the economy flourished and millions of Brazilians were lifted out of poverty.
Later, he was involved in a comprehensive political scandal that ended with him being sentenced to prison in 2017, accused of corruption. The verdict was later overturned, as it was found that the judge who sentenced Lula had been biased.
In 2022, he made a spectacular comeback in a bitter election struggle where he won a narrow victory over the then incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right rival was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to stage a coup after the election loss, when his supporters stormed the parliament and government buildings.
Still, no new clear representative for Brazil's right-wing voters has emerged as a challenger ahead of the election next October.
