The president Lula (PT) intensified announcements, launches, inaugurations and deliveries of his government with the approach of this year’s election, when he will run for another term at the head of Palácio do Planalto.
Until May, the PT member concentrated these acts on São Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro. Amazonas also appears at the top of the advertising rankings — not counting commitments in the federal capital, where Lula lives and works.
Lula and his political group seek to match the government’s inauguration agenda with the pre-campaign needs in the coming weeks. Electorally important states, such as Minas Gerais, have had little PT presence so far.
There has been a jump in the number of announcements and events on the president’s agenda in the last month. Eighteen of the 43 in the first five months of the year occurred in May. In the same period of 2025, 31 events were held, 7 of which were in May.
The report extracted data from the PT member’s official agenda. Announcements, launches, inaugurations, deliveries and signatures of new government actions were considered.
Symbolic measures, such as the launch of medals to commemorate 90 years of the minimum wage, were not included in the bill. Announcements of private investments in which Lula participated and measures such as sanctions or bill vetoes, which depend on a previous movement by Congress, were also disregarded.
The head of government seeks to increase his popularity as the election approaches. The expectation is for a fierce dispute with the senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).
The most recent Datafolha search showed the PT member with 47% of voting intentions for the second round, against 43% for Flávio – the president leads at the maximum limit of the margin of error.
Lula verbalized his intention to speed up deliveries during an event in Sergipe on Friday (29). THE TSE (Superior Electoral Court) prohibits, from July 4th (three months before the 1st round), some conduct by public agents, such as appointments, dismissals and hirings, as well as participation in the inauguration of public works.
“I am only a candidate for president of the Republic after July 3rd. Until July 3rd, I am president of the Republic, I will travel around Brazil delivering all the works we have done”, he declared. “I can visit work, but I can’t inaugurate it. And, if I want to campaign, it’s after 6pm when I finish my Presidency activity, or on Saturday and Sunday.”
When visiting a region to inaugurate a hospital, for example, Lula addresses the local public debate with a positive topic for his government, in the view of his allies. When he gives interviews to the local press, the questions usually include works of regional interest.
To compensate for certain states where he was unable to travel, such as at times when he fulfilled international commitments in sequence, Lula held appointments at the Palácio do Planalto, in Brasília, with local managers, such as in April, when he received two governors in one week.
States
The states where Lula made the most announcements and inaugurations this year were São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas.
The PT member held seven events of this type in six different cities in São Paulo. All four such commitments in Rio de Janeiro were in the state capital. São Paulo has the largest electoral college in Brazil, and Rio de Janeiro, the third — Minas is the second.
Amazonas has only the 15th largest electorate in Brazil. Lula’s four commitments on the spot included in the survey Sheet were on the same trip. The PT member spent the 26th and 27th of May in the state.
São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas have in common the fact that they are some of the states in which Lula’s electoral alliances are most established. The pre-candidates for governor who will join the president in these places will be Fernando Haddad (PT-SP), Eduardo Paes (PSD-RJ) and Omar Aziz (PSD-AM).
Allies of the PT member fear that inaugurations in states where alliances are still under negotiation will disrupt conversations – for example, if the event has the participation of a certain sector of local politics and not another.
This helps to explain why Minas Gerais was only the scene of one of the actions included in the survey. Lula still does not have a candidate for governor in the state. Part of his allies think it is possible that a delicate political operation will bring the PT member and the former mayor of Belo Horizonte Alexandre Kalil (PDT), pre-candidate for governor who distanced himself from the PT in recent years.
Since the end of last year, there has been an effort by management to accelerate delivery frequency of a more popular character. At the time, events such as the launch of Reforma Casa Brasil, real estate credit actions, the removal of the mandatory driving school for issuing a driver’s license, as well as the resumption of actions for drivers and other low-income groups were chained together.
