Lula and Bolsonaro Brazil differs from what Lula is doing now

Brazilian left-wing leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won presidential elections in Brazil for the third time after 2002 and 2006. “The Brazilian people won, democracy won,” Lula said. “As an opponent, I had no candidate but the whole state machine.”

During the vote in the second ballot, on October 30, Brazilians rewarded the historic leader of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Pt), the workers’ party. Lula beat the outgoing head of state, Jair Bolsonaro (Pl, right), the first president to fail in his bid for re-election.

Lula during the victory speech. Photo Ansa / Epa Sebastiao Moreira

From now on, the leader of the Brazilian left will be able to govern for 4 years. He is slightly ahead of his opponent: 60 million votes against 58 million, shares at 50.9% against 49.1%. At the end of the polls, joy and sadness erupted throughout Brazil. Carousels of cars and motorbikes, shouts from apartment windows, car horns and flags flying fill the streets of major cities. On the one hand, supporters of Lula, the former victorious trade unionist, in tears of joy, on the other, the disappointing silence of supporters of Bolsonaro.

Lula, confirmed predictions

In a nation divided in two, the most polarized elections in Brazil’s history are reflected in the mood of its citizens, divided by opposing supporters like in a national football final. In Rio de Janeiro, the second largest metropolis of the South American giant, jubilant voters flocked to the beach, flooding the Copacabana district with their joy. While from the “favelas” on the morros (hills), fireworks began to light up the sky.

Photo Ansa / Epa Sebastiao Moreira

Having taken the lead, as confirmed by the latest Datafolha poll which gave him 52% of the preferences against 48% of the opponent on the evening of the eve of the election, Lula was able to restore hope to the country. He literally rose from the ashes of the Lava Jato, the Brazilian investigation into Mani Clean that carried him away and ended up in jail, with corruption charges that later turned out to be false. In the past two months of convincing Brazilians by beating the country’s squares from north to south, the worker-turned-president has not missed an opportunity to demand that a progressive model prevail for the country.

The chief’s objectives

It is to bring it back into the orbit of international relations. “Now it is more isolated than Cuba,” Lula told Bolsonaro during the televised debate on the eve of the vote. The new president wants to revive the attention on the poor: “There are 33 million citizens who suffer from hunger”, he said. He also wants to stop the extermination of the natives and the dismantling of the Amazonian forests. Will he succeed? Difficult to make predictions because Brazil is cut in half like an apple. From here the voters of Lula, the victor; beyond Bolsonaro voters who represent everything most antithetical to Lula. From now on, the new president will have to be able to reconcile a divided nation. It won’t be easy.

Pro-Bolsonaro electricians. Photo Ansa / Epa André Coelho