President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited former President José Sarney at his residence in São Luís, Maranhão, on Tuesday, October 20, three days after Sarney was discharged from a nine-day hospitalization for intestinal obstruction surgery. The meeting, accompanied by First Lady Janja Lula da Silva, followed a campaign walk through the capital of Brazil's poorest state.
Sarney, 96, served as Brazil's president from 1985 to 1990 after the death of President-elect Tancredo Neves, and later as a senator for Amapá until 2023. He remains the longest-serving politician in Brazil's modern history and a symbolic figure of the country's transition from military dictatorship to democracy. His family has dominated Maranhão politics for decades through the MDB party.
Lula's visit signals the Workers' Party (PT) strategy of consolidating its traditional northeastern stronghold. The president also campaigned earlier Tuesday in a joint walk between Juazeiro, Bahia, and Petrolina, Pernambuco — twin cities straddling the São Francisco River that have long been a PT electoral base. He was joined by the governors of Bahia (Jerônimo Rodrigues) and Piauí (Rafael Fonteles), both PT members, as well as senators Rui Costa and Jaques Wagner (PT-Bahia), Humberto Costa (PT-Pernambuco), and Marília Arraes (PDT-Pernambuco). João Campos, former Recife mayor and national president of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), also attended.
The Sarney meeting carries particular weight given the historical tensions between Lula and the former president. During the 1980s and 1990s, Lula's PT opposed Sarney's government and the MDB-dominated political establishment. Their reconciliation in recent years reflects the pragmatic coalition-building that has characterized Lula's third term, which depends on support from centrist and center-right parties in Congress.
Sarney was admitted to UDI Hospital, part of the D'Or network, on October 9. A medical bulletin released on Saturday, October 17, reported satisfactory clinical evolution after surgery for intestinal obstruction. He remains under outpatient medical supervision.
The northeastern tour is part of Lula's re-election campaign for the October 2026 presidential vote. The region delivered Lula his largest margins in the 2022 runoff, with over 69% of valid votes across the nine states. Maintaining that advantage is critical to the PT's path to victory, particularly as polling shows a tighter national race than in previous cycles.