Lula, Bolsonaro Teams Start Brazil Power Transition

Bras�lia, Nov 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2022 ) :Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's advisers met government officials Thursday to start the power transition, as supporters of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro continued loud -- albeit shrinking -- protests against his election loss.

Brazil has been on edge since veteran leftist Lula's narrow win Sunday over far-right incumbent Bolsonaro, who remained silent for two days as angry supporters blocked highways across the country, calling for a military intervention to keep him in power.

However, with the blockades losing strength, the wheels of the power transfer were set in motion as vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin, whom Lula has picked to lead his transition team, met with Bolsonaro's cabinet chief, Ciro Nogueira, in Brasilia.

"The conversation was very fruitful, very objective," Alckmin told a news conference.

"The transition has begun... As Lula said in his victory speech, our task is to unite Brazil. So here we go." Alckmin, a business-friendly center-right veteran tasked with building bridges with Lula's adversaries, said he would now meet with the president-elect, and that they would begin announcing the full membership of the transition team from Monday.

The head of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann, and the transition team's technical coordinator, Aloizio Mercadante, were also present.

Earlier, Alckmin held what he called another "fruitful" meeting with Senate budget rapporteur Marcelo Castro, seeking ways to make key Lula campaign promises fit within an extremely tight 2023 Federal budget.

"We have various emergencies," said Workers' Party senator-elect Wellington Dias, who is heading Lula's budget negotiations.

"We're trying to find the necessary amount for each critical point," he told a news conference.

Conservatives scored big election wins in Congress, where Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) will be the largest force -- meaning Lula faces an uphill battle to get legislation passed and tackle problems such as a weak economy, hunger crisis and surging destruction in the Amazon rainforest.