BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva may struggle to get a handpicked successor elected next year after his choice was diagnosed with cancer.
Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s influential chief of staff, shocked the political world over the weekend when she revealed that she had had a tumor removed from her armpit and would undergo chemotherapy to treat lymphoma.
Rousseff’s illness, coupled with a sharp economic downturn that has begun to erode Lula’s lofty approval ratings, has unleashed a fierce debate about next year’s presidential race and could spark a power struggle among political parties.
“The two episodes can change the course of the election,” Arko Advice, a Brasilia-based political consulting firm said in a report.
Doctors say Rousseff, 61, has a 90 percent chance of a full recovery after undergoing chemotherapy for the next four months, a period that could be crucial for her to negotiate support as she tries to claw back from trailing in early opinion polls.
“It’s a brake on her campaign, the political negotiations are on ice,” said Lucia Hipolito, a political commentator for CBN radio.
Likely to benefit most from the episode is Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra, who is emerging as the probable opposition candidate for the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB.
Serra, 66, lost to Lula in the 2002 presidential race and has extensive experience in government. A political centrist who served as planning minister and health minister in the 1990s, Serra has begun a slew of high-profile public works projects in Sao Paulo in a bid to consolidate his lead on Rousseff.
Earlier this year, Rousseff’s candidacy was endorsed by the Workers’ Party founded by Lula, who by law cannot run for a third consecutive term. She stepped up her campaign, inaugurating public works projects, and even parading during Carnival celebrations.
But the tough-talking former guerrilla lacks the political skills and charisma that made Lula, 63, probably Brazil’s most popular president ever, and she trails Serra by 30 percentage points in opinion polls.
