Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, staged a spectacular electoral fightback, defeating his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, to win a historic fourth term in power.
With nearly 99% of the votes counted, the 80-year-old leftist obtained 51.75% of the votes against 48.25% for his 45-year-old rival.
Lula narrowly lost the first round of elections to Bolsonaro in early October, putting his political future in doubt and plunging progressive Brazilians into three weeks of despair. Never since the return of democracy in the 1980s has the candidate in the first round won the second vote.
But that is precisely what Lula did on Sunday, provoking scenes of joy in the streets of São Paulo, where he was following the count, and at the hotel where he was monitoring the count.
When the result was confirmed, Reginaldo Lopes, a key Lula ally, told the Guardian: “I feel incredible… This is Brazil telling the world that the far right is fascist, that the far right is against blacks, against the poor, against the state, against homosexuals… We are going to reorganize the democratic forces (in this country).
The outgoing president, who lost by 2.2 million votes three weeks ago, has now won by 4.3 million.
The 81-year-old leftist appears to have made up much of the difference thanks to what his allies had identified as his main opportunity: persuading his voters to participate. After a record abstention rate of 21.08% in the first round, which disproportionately affected Lula voters because they generally live further from polling stations, the rate fell to 19.21%.
For Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday, the victory represents a sensational final chapter in a storied political career that began when he became a union leader in São Paulo’s industrial suburbs in the late 1970s.
After entering politics, the former factory worker born into rural poverty made three unsuccessful presidential attempts, in 1989, 1994 and 1998, before finally becoming Brazil’s first elected working-class president in 2002.
Lula resigned after the maximum two consecutive terms allowed by the constitution, but returned to power after winning the 2022 election against Bolsonaro’s father, then-incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who was later imprisoned for plotting a coup.
Lula’s victory is bad news for Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for the botched power grab and who had hoped to be released and given a role in government if his son wins.
It is also a hard blow for Donald Trump, the most important international ally of the Bolsonaro clan. The US president hoped Bolsonaro would become the latest in a series of pro-Trump leaders to take power in Latin America, including Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, José Antonio Kast in Chile and Javier Milei in Argentina.
The confirmation of Lula’s victory was greeted with anger and bewilderment in Brasilia, where Bolsonaro lives under house arrest and where his son attended the count.
Lula’s victory came after his supporters staged two massive demonstrations of support on Saturday, with more than a million people gathering on Rio’s Copacabana beach and even larger numbers marching on Paulista Avenue in the heart of São Paulo.
Speaking at the Rio rally, truck driver Josias Silva said he was confident in Lula’s return, after weeks of student-led anti-Bolsonaro protests.
“The people have woken up… There has never been a demonstration like this. This is the biggest protest in the history of Brazil. And we will win tomorrow with more than 60% of the votes,” Silva said.
Hundreds of Lula supporters returned to Paulista Avenue on Sunday evening to watch the vote count, waving red flags stamped with the president’s face.
“I feel very happy to be here and to fight for Lula,” said Camilo Buarque, 35, watching Lula take an early lead. “My confidence comes from the energy, happiness and love of these people (around me). This is democracy.”
“My heart is beating a thousand beats per second but I am confident,” said Ester Almeida, 28, another Lula supporter at the rally.
Many people on the streets of São Paulo were angry over an apparent attempt by pro-Bolsonaro politicians to derail the election by sabotaging public transportation in Lula-leaning voting areas across the country.
“I think this is another coup attempt that the far right is trying in Brazil. But we really have to fight to win,” said Lucas Lopes, a 32-year-old from São Paulo who works in public relations.
But this supposed attempt to derail Lula’s victory failed.
“I’ll be sincere: in the first round, the left failed. But in the second round, it woke up,” said Caio Marques, a 40-year-old photographer from Franca, a city in the interior of São Paulo state. “And no coup will take that away from us.” »
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