Who is "Janja", the future first lady of Brazil who organized Lula's inauguration ceremony

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who will take office as president of Brazil this Sunday, says he is in love with her "as if he were 20 years old." Rosangela da Silva, whom he married in May, is a sociologist and leftist militant who publicly repays her love and accompanied him during his campaign to win his third term.

Born in Sao Paulo 56 years ago, "Janja", as her friends nickname her, organized Lula's inauguration ceremony and promised that Brasilia will experience "a true popular festival" this Sunday.

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“This January 1 will begin with joy and end with joy. That is what we are working for, so that it is a happy day for everyone, ”he said at a press conference in early December.

The woman who will become first lady after Lula's victory over Jair Bolsonaro in the elections defines herself as a true "petista with a card", and has been affiliated with the Workers' Party (PT) since 1983.

He studied Sociology at the Federal University of Paraná and worked for almost 20 years for the Itaipu Binacional energy company in Curitiba (southern Brazil).

Although the Brazilian press affirms that both have known each other "for decades", Lula's advisory assures that they began their relationship at the end of 2017, during an event that brought together left-wing activists and artists, including Chico Buarque.

But the romance between this brown-haired woman with a smiling expression and the leader of the left-wing party, 21 years older, was kept secret until May 2019, when Lula had already been in prison for more than a year after being convicted of corruption in the Lava Jato case, according to Lula biographer Fernando Morais.

Three years later, they got married in Sao Paulo in an act with some 200 people, the details of which remain unrevealed to this day.

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After finding out about their courtship, "Janja" visited him frequently in jail and multiplied the messages of love on his Twitter account (@JanjaLula): "I'm looking for words on the keyboard to describe these 500 days (that you've been in prison). Hard! Your physical absence hurts too much,” she once wrote.

“Today I would just like to hug you to fill you with endless love. Congratulations, my love, I love you forever, ”she said on his birthday.

The wait ended in November 2019, when a change in jurisprudence on serving sentences allowed the former president to be released.

Together with relatives and PT leaders, Rosangela waited for him outside the Curitiba prison (south) and they kissed in front of a crowd.

“I want to introduce you to someone that I have already mentioned, but that not everyone knows: my future partner”, said Lula, excited.

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Since Lula had his convictions annulled and was authorized to contest the election, "Janja" accompanied him on several of his commitments, including his trips to Europe and Mexico.

As a “wedding gift”, she commissioned the reissue of Lula's famous electoral jingle from 1989, re-recorded by various artists for the current campaign and which she presented at the launch of her candidacy this month in Sao Paulo. And she has hinted that she could take an active role as first lady, working on food safety projects.

Rosangela keeps low-key about her personal life. According to Veja magazine, she was married for more than a decade and has no children.

He is a "very politicized person, he has a good political head and he is very feminist," Lula revealed last September in an interview with rapper Mano Brown.

This is Lula's third marriage. The former president married for the first time in 1969, with Maria de Lourdes da Silva, who died two years later from hepatitis, and in 1974 with Marisa Leticia, who died in 2017 from a stroke and with whom the Brazilian president-elect had four children. .

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“When you lose your wife and you think that life has no more meaning, that everything is over, a person appears who begins to make sense of it again,” Lula told Time magazine this year.

“I am in love as if I were 20 years old, as if it were my first girlfriend. I am going to get married in the calmest way possible and make a happy campaign, ”she said then.

But the romance between this brown-haired woman with a smiling expression and the leader of the left-wing party, 21 years older, was kept secret until May 2019, when Lula had already been in prison for more than a year after being convicted of corruption in the Lava Jato case, according to Lula biographer Fernando Morais.