By Trend

Former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched his presidential bid on Saturday calling on Brazilians to unite behind him to defend Brazil's democracy from the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Without mentioning Bolsonaro by name, Lula told supporters at a rally that his adversary was unable to govern and lied constantly to the nation to hide his incompetence.

"The most serious moment the country is going through forces us to overcome our differences and build an alternative path to the incompetence and authoritarianism that govern us," he said.

"We want to join democrats of all political positions, classes, races and religious beliefs ... to defeat the totalitarian threat, the hatred, violence and discrimination hanging over our country," he said to a cheering crowd.

The rally was called a "pre-launch" to comply with Brazilian election law that says official campaigning for the October election starts in August.