Brazil’s new president may soon face another threat: his predecessor

Since taking office in January, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new left-wing president, has faced several problems. A week after his inauguration thousands of fans of Jair Bolsonaro, his right-wing predecessor, stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court, demanding that the army overturn last year’s election result. Lula, as he is known, has picked fights with the central bank over raising interest rates. A recent, testy press conference with Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, confirmed his indulgent attitude towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now Lula faces another challenge: Mr Bolsonaro has said he will return from his self-imposed exile in Florida in March to be “the national leader of the right”.