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The election of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva raised great expectations on the center-left. For most leftist writers, his election heralded a new epoch of progressive changes which, while not revolutionary, defined the end of neo-liberalism.
Noted progressive religious figures, like Leonardo Boff, announced imminent change which would challenge U.S. hegemony and lead to great popular participation. Frei Betto, a close associate of Lula, launched a vitriolic attack on critics who questioned some of Lulas appointments citing his popular roots as a former metal worker and union leader a quarter of a century earlier.
Left-wing members of the Workers Party, Olivo Dutra and Tarso Genero, appointed to minor ministerial positions in Lulas cabinet called for the disciplining (expulsion or silencing) of a dissident PT Senator Heloisa who objected to the PTs support for right-wing Senator Jose Sarney as President of the Senate.
European, U.S. and Latin American progressives and leftists and their movements, NGOs, parties and journals joined the celebration of the Lula Presidency, his progressive agenda and his leadership in the fight against neo-liberalism and globalization. While over 100,000 at the World Social Forum in January 2003 at Porto Alegre cheered Lula as a hero of the Left and precursor of a new wave of leftist regimes (along with President Lucio Gutierrez and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), some of Lulas intellectual supporters (Emir Sader) pleaded with Lula not to go to Davos to plead his case for foreign investment to the worlds most rapacious speculators and richest investors.