Brazilian President Lula was treated to a parade in his honor at the Rio de Janeiro carnival on Sunday evening, under criticism from the right a few months before the general elections. His predecessor Jair Bolsonaro was, unwillingly, the star of a highlight of the parade, with an allegorical float mocking him as a clown wearing an electronic bracelet.

Published on: 02/16/2026 - 11:39 Modified on: 02/16/2026 - 15:17

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A giant statue bearing the image of Lula greeting the crowd: the President of Brazil was entitled, on Sunday evening, February 15, to a parade in his honor at the Rio de Janeiro carnival a few months before the general elections scheduled for early October.

Cacti and poor farmers to represent his childhood in the rural Northeast, helmeted workers illustrating his past in the metal industry and union activism...

This is the entire trajectory of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80 years old, returned to power in 2023 after two first mandates (2003-2010) and already a candidate for succession, which was told by Academicos de Niteroi, one of the 12 main samba schools in Rio.

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Paying homage to personalities on the famous Sambodrome Avenue, 700 meters long, is not uncommon. But this is the first time that a sitting president has been entitled to it. So much so that the opposition denounced a disguised campaign.

Lula and his wife Rosangela "Janja" da Silva watched the parade from a VIP stand alongside Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, an ally. They must have enjoyed the show.

“Olé, olé, olé, ola, Lula, Lula!”

Among the tens of thousands of spectators, many sang the leitmotif of the song accompanying the parade: “Olé, olé, olé, ola, Lula, Lula!”, which is none other than the indefatigable refrain of his supporters.

From the fight against hunger to the defense of the natives through social programs, it is a left-wing manifesto that the flamboyant floats escorted by some 3,000 dancers and percussionists gave to see and hear.

“We did not come here to campaign but to celebrate the story of a worker in Brazil,” Leonel Querino, a director of Academicos, explained to AFP.

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The political context, however, is not trivial. Faced with Lula already a candidate, former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted coup d'état, launched his eldest son, senator Flavio Bolsonaro, into the race.

And the former head of state was reluctantly the star of a highlight of the parade: an allegorical float mocked him as a clown wearing an electronic bracelet. Bozo (the clown) is one of the nicknames given by the left to Jair Bolsonaro.

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“We must not mix carnival and politics”

This should not calm the fury of the conservative camp, which for several days has seen the spectacle as an act of campaigning even though it only starts in August.

On Thursday, the Superior Electoral Court rejected requests filed by two opposition parties seeking to cancel the parade. The magistrates, however, warned that they were not giving any "free pass" and that they could examine possible breaches a posteriori.

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In the Lula camp, the warning had the effect of a cold snap. On Friday, the presidency called on officials attending the carnival to refrain from "statements that could be qualified as early election propaganda." And Lula's Workers' Party asked to ban political outfits or banners.

Even before the parade, Flavio Bolsonaro had shared on Instagram a video made by artificial intelligence depicting a completely different spectacle, depicting Lula as a “thief” enriching himself on the backs of the poor.

Coming to the Sambodrome, Marcia Alves, a 59-year-old retiree, is not in heaven either. She doesn't take much notice of Lula and believes that "we should not mix carnival and politics", she told AFP. Luena Holliday, a 51-year-old Brazilian living in England, supports the left-wing president but hesitates: "We are living in a moment of great division in the country."

With AFP

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