- Title: Brazil's Workers Party looks to Lula to rise from ashes
- Date: 2nd June 2017
- Summary: NEWSPAPER WITH HEADLINE ON LULA'S CANDIDACY FOR 2018 ELECTIONS
- Embargoed: 17th June 2017 00:46
- Keywords: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva elections Brazil Workers Party
- Location: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
- City: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0026JQ2C77
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Brazil's once all-mighty Workers Party, driven into the political wilderness by its fall from power in the midst of a massive graft scandal, is struggling to find its footing ahead of next year's general election. Some analysts say the party is many years away from ever winning back the power it once firmly held.
But party members are optimistic, saying that their single biggest asset, the charisma of its founder and former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, remains a potent political force, despite Lula's facing five corruption trials.
A return of the PT, the Portuguese acronym by which the party is known, worries investors who fear it would reverse the unpopular fiscal reforms proposed in President Michel Temer's austerity drive.
At a convention this week aimed at rebuilding the party, corruption allegations levelled against President Michel Temer was high on the agenda.
Temer was reportedly instrumental in engineering the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff from the Workers Party.
Opinion polls show Lula ahead for the 2018 race, though he is burdened by having the highest rejection rates among all potential hopefuls whose supporters would likely unite against him in a run-off.
The real question is whether he will make it to the start line. A conviction for corruption followed by the loss of a first appeal would disqualify him from running. A ruling in the first graft case against him is expected by July.
Lula has already said publicly that he wants to run in 2018, but has not yet made it official to avoid compounding his legal problems, aides have reported.
Analysts say the fall of the PT was so great that the party will take a long time to recover and will be in no shape to win an election any time soon. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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