Brazil's political and economic situation under President Lula da Silva

It wasn't that long ago that Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, railed against the Western industrialized nations at the World Climate Conference in his own country. They are responsible for climate change and have to pay for it.

Frightened, Berlin and Brussels dug deep into their pockets and transferred hundreds of millions to the Amazon protection fund. It is now also used to pay for the health care of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, which the Brazilian state has criminally neglected in recent decades. Even under Lula da Silva.

So while Europeans are working diligently to protect the Amazon, those responsible for the previous deforestation of the rainforest are holding back. Neither the Brazilian agricultural industry, which makes billions in profits, nor its main buyer China are significantly involved. In return, Europeans have to watch as their car industry in Brazil is gradually being destroyed by subsidized Chinese electric cars.

Lula da Silva is also investing. However, in the highly controversial oil production in the Amazon estuary basin. Experts suspect there are a few billion barrels of oil there. This contradicts all of the Brazilian president's Sunday speeches on climate protection, but the majority of the international media doesn't care. Because the elections are about defending democracy in Brazil against fascism.

But democracy in Brazil currently looks like this: The Supreme Court is predominantly made up of loyal judges hand-picked by Lula's left-wing workers' party PT. He is currently sinking into a corruption scandal of unprecedented proportions. Politicians previously convicted of corruption are being rehabilitated by the PT government and flushed back into the political system.

The country's largest media group receives by far the highest advertising money from the state budget and is also positioning itself on Lula's side. The president, who likes to present himself as a defender of democracy, has a heart for repressive dictatorships such as China, the mullahs' regime in Iran and the Stone Age communists in Cuba.

All of this is causing unease among the Brazilian electorate, who sense that something has slipped. Most recently, Lula's right-wing conservative challenger Flavio Bolsonaro made gains in the polls. If he wasn't also facing corruption allegations, he would probably clearly win the presidential election.

With his back against the wall, Lula da Silva resorts to the means that shapes his political style like no other: he buys the judiciary, the Brazilian media and now also the electorate. In the election year, he massively increases social spending and cuts taxes. Brazil cannot afford that. National debt has increased significantly under Lula and the country is now at the top of the debt rankings in Latin America. But luckily there is oil in the Amazon that could be used to pay off the debt. The Europeans pay for climate protection. Together with the Americans, they are to blame for everything anyway.