Brazil's 80-year-old Lula hits the treadmill to ease voter concerns about age

SAO PAULO (AP) — Fewer podiums and interviews. More lunges and squats.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is pumping up his reelection bid at age 80 by looking jacked in workouts that his critics say are more popular than the man himself.

While Brazilians are divided over whether he should run for his fourth nonconsecutive term, there is a rare consensus regarding his commitment to run on a treadmill every day.

“He is a bit too old to campaign again. We'd better have someone else running. But his workouts are indeed a good example for people like me,” said Marcela Peres, 63, as she exercised in a hotel gym in Brasilia on Wednesday.

Lula's attempt to show himself full of energy has led his main rival, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, to show his moves too.

Some voters have expressed concern that Lula might follow the path of former U.S. President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the 2024 race over questions about his health and age. But Lula is flexing his muscles to challenge supporters to stick with him again.

“One of these idiots said it was not me, that it was a clone,” Lula said in March, days after his wife, Rosângela da Silva, posted a video of his workout routine. “Go to the gym. Get ready. Drink less and work to see what happens. I want to live 120 years.”

Lula’s main rival is almost half his age

The president frequently played soccer during his first two terms, maintained a workout regimen throughout his 580 days in prison and has advocated for exercise since he ran in 2022 to beat then-incumbent Bolsonaro, a former Army captain in poor health.

If Lula wins in October, he will beat his own record as the oldest man to be elected Brazilian president.

His main rival is almost half his age.

Bolsonaro, the 45-year-old son of the former president, recently mocked Lula by comparing him with an old Chevrolet Opala that is “all backward” and “drinks a lot (of fuel).”

Lula, who has appeared on nearly every presidential ballot since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, brushed off the insult by describing himself instead as a “turbo car.”

“He is doing this to steer away from the Joe Biden effect," said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper university in Sao Paulo. “Flávio Bolsonaro is trying to say he is actually the young one. This is a game of image.”

Brazil's voting population is aging

The younger Bolsonaro is also signaling he is in good shape by sharing films of him in short races to meetings and dancing on stage.

This side of his personality became evident only in December, when his father anointed him as presidential candidate from prison in the capital, Brasilia, where he was serving a 27-year sentence for leading a coup attempt before moving to house arrest.

Consultant Felipe Soutello, who ran several campaigns for politicians in Brazil, said today’s bids for public office must feature candidates in motion, regardless of age.

“The opposition will use a certain ageism, a little prejudice against older generations, as a tool to hurt the president’s performance,” Soutello said.

But he noted that Brazil is undergoing a demographic shift, where voters above age 60 represent one fourth of the electorate. "They have more political weight than the young people,” he said.

The number of Brazilians above age 60 who are eligible to vote grew from 20.8 million in 2010 to 36.2 million in March of this year, according to researcher Nexus, citing figures of Brazil’s top electoral court.

Musician Antonio Moreira, 50, loves workouts on the beach in Rio de Janeiro, showing off his muscles, his tan and his tattoos. He is part of a small, influential group that could decide the election: voters still uncommitted to either Lula or Bolsonaro.

In the last election, Lula won with just 50.9% of the vote, the narrowest margin in the country’s history.

”Nobody wants to vote for a president that is stumbling," Moreira said, adding that Lula’s workouts also encourage older people to stay active.

As for Bolsonaro’s moves, Moreira said “a little dance can define an entire political career” in Brazil. But that's not enough.

“It is okay to do it as they do to seek for votes, but to reach a different kind of voter there needs to be more real proposals, right?”

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AP journalist Lucas Dumphreys contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro.