Lula receives honorary citizenship of Paris for fighting inequity

Paris, March 2 (Prensa Latina) Brazilian former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received the status of Citizen of Honor on Monday for his commitment to the fight against economic and social inequalities.

In a ceremony at the City Hall of Paris, the mayor of Paris, socialist Anne Hidalgo, awarded the recognition to the founder of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT), who served 580 days in political prison, in a judicial maneuver to neutralize the possibility of his return to power.

Lula will be accompanied at the event by prominent PT figures such as the former head of state Dilma Rousseff and former presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, defeated at the polls in October 2018 by the far-right representative Jair Bolsonaro.

The title of Citizen of Honor of Paris is granted exceptionally for the defense of human rights, in an attempt to protect its promoters, and the list of winners includes Mumia Abu-Jamal, the first to receive it in 2001, Nelson Mandela (2013) and biodiversity (2016).

The Paris City Hall decided in last October to award da Silva for his management from the Planalto Palace (2003-2010) to combat inequality, which allowed some 30 million Brazilians to rise above the line of extreme poverty and access rights and essential services.

It also highlighted his battle against racial discrimination and his denounciation of being a victim of a conspiracy to prevent him from contesting the presidency in the 2018 elections, which opened the path to power for Bolsonaro.