President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended Brazil's Independence Day military parade on Monday morning (7) along the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Brasília. The front row of the honorary stand held the heads of all three branches of government: Supreme Federal Court (STF) President Edson Fachin, Senate and Congress President Davi Alcolumbre, and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta, according to G1.
The picture placed the executive, legislature and judiciary side by side in the middle of an institutional crisis centered on the top court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, two opposition protests ran in parallel with the parade in the capital and called for Lula and Justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave office. Protesters sang the national anthem and criticized Alcolumbre for refusing to schedule an impeachment vote against the justice in the Senate.
Fachin's presence marked a contrast with last year, when no Supreme Court justice attended the celebrations. According to G1, the 2025 parade took place during the trial of the coup plot, which sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison.
A sober official event
The 204th Independence Day was organized around three themes: national sovereignty, the fight against violence targeting women, and the 2027 Women's World Cup. The presidency estimated that 70,000 people took part. Lula arrived in an open car with first lady Janja da Silva. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and his wife, Lu Alckmin, were also in the stand.
The parade kept a sober tone on the recommendation of the Attorney General's Office (AGU). In an election year, with Brazil choosing its next president in October, the event was to stay institutional, with no element that could be read as partisan campaigning or an attempt to influence voters, G1 reported.
Messages on sovereignty and women
National sovereignty has been a recurring theme of the government since US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Brazilian goods last year. In his Independence Day address, broadcast on national radio and television on Sunday (6), Lula said:
"We need to stay strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not become, once again, a colony of foreign powers. We are not, and we will not be, anyone's colony."
The parade also highlighted measures Lula signed into law in May to protect victims of domestic violence, including a national registry of abusers and a rule that removes the aggressor from the home. The signing marked 100 days of a pact among the three branches to fight femicide.
The holiday ends, the crisis does not. The impeachment request against Moraes still has no date for a Senate vote, and the presidential race moves toward the first round in October.