Promising Unity After Being Inaugurated, President Lula: There Are No Two Brazils, We Are One Country

President of Brazil Lula was paired with the presidency. (Source: Twitter/@LulaOficial/ricardos stuckert)

JAKARTA - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as president of Brazil on Sunday, vowing to make drastic changes to save a country hit by hunger, poverty and racism.

After taking the oath, President Lula rode an open-door Rolls-Royce to the Plan Palace, where he walked up his incline with his wife and a diverse group, including the Head of Raoni Metuktire from the Kayapendese tribe.

Lula was then handed over by the presidency - a huge symbolic act in Brazil which Bolsonaro repeatedly said he would never do - by Aline Sousa, a black scavenger.

In his next speech, he promised to unite a polarized and ruling country for all Brazilians.

"No one is interested in a country that is always at war, or a family that lives in disharmony," President Lula said.

"There are no two Brazils. We are one country, one great nation."

President Lula said he would be fiscal, but made it clear that his main focus was ending hunger and narrowing rampant inequality.

He also said it aims to improve women's rights, as well as attack Brazil's racism and slavery heritage.

"This will be the hallmark of our government," he said.

In previous years as president of the Labor Party (PT) from 2003-2010, the former union leader lifted millions of Brazilians from poverty during a commodity boom that supported the economy.

Now, he faces tough challenges to improving Brazil's stagnant economy while also putting together a painfully polarized country under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

"A lot is expected from CLA. He will have a difficult mission to restore normality and predictability in Brazil, and above all to give results that improve the quality of life of the population quickly," said Creomar de Souza, director of Dharma Political Risk in Brasilia.

The election victory of CLA marks a stunning political return, winning an unprecedented third term, after a pause that saw him spend a year behind bars.