Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has declared his support for lowering the age of criminal responsibility for "especially serious" crimes from 18 to 16, reversing the long-standing position of his governing party. The announcement came in a Thursday evening interview with TV Globo, just over a week before the second round of the presidential election.
Observers see the move as a calculated campaign play, as Lula struggles to overturn the first-round victory of his far-right rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who continues to lead in opinion polls.
Both Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, have long supported lowering the age of criminal responsibility, and have even pushed for 14 rather than 16. Lula and his party, by contrast, have always opposed the change.
After a series of polls — the most recent this week showing 80% of the population in favour of lowering the age — Lula said: "My view, as a Brazilian citizen, is that for any especially serious crime, I support lowering the age." When a reporter asked whether he meant to 16, he answered "yes".
Under Brazilian law, the category of "especially serious" crimes is broad, ranging from murder and rape to the counterfeiting of medicines and drug trafficking — offences that account for roughly a quarter of the 816,000 people currently serving prison sentences in Brazil.
Human rights organisations and security experts have long criticised proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility, arguing they fail to address violence and instead fuel recruitment into organised crime within Brazil's overcrowded prison system.
Before Lula's interview, the proposal had been under discussion in the Senate. The Brazilian Bishops' Conference, which represents Catholic bishops, criticised the proposal for failing to "address the root causes of violence", adding that placing young people "in the prison system too early tends to deepen the cycle of violence and exclusion and hinder their rehabilitation".
In a column for UOL, journalist Josias de Souza wrote that by reversing his long-held position, Lula "decided to change himself. This is no ordinary shift. On public security, Lula has completely transformed. He has begun defending what he always rejected."
In recent days, the incumbent has stepped up efforts to overturn the 2.2 million-vote margin Bolsonaro built in the first round by courting independent and undecided voters. He has lobbied Congress to approve a reduction in the working week — a proposal Bolsonaro himself reversed his position on at the last minute to support when it appeared set to pass — along with debt relief for micro-enterprises, and has promised free public transport at weekends.
