Brazil's Leftist leader Lula makes stunning comeback, Bolsonaro defeated

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Worker’s Party made a stunning comeback defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to become Brazil’s next president. The 77-year-old Da Silva, a former president, who had been in power from 2003-2010, has rode to power on the promise to restore the country’s more prosperous past. But Lula da Silva faces multiple challenges as he inherits a highly polarised society.

The Latin American nation is plagued by gross inequality still grappling with the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 9.6 million people came under the poverty line between 2019 and 2021, and literacy and school attendance rates dropped as well. The new president will have to tackle urgent environmental issues, including rampant deforestation in the Amazon.

Da Silva’s victory however heralds a political turnaround for Latin America’s largest country, after four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration. His victory in Brazil means that every major country in Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico, will be led by a leftist government when he takes office on January 1.

This is the first time since the time Brazil returned to democracy in 1985 that the sitting president has failed to win a re-election. Da Silva’s inauguration is all set to take place on January 1.

Media reports said that this is stunning victory for Da Silva, who had been imprisoned in 2018 over a corruption scandal and could not participate in that year’s election making way for Bolsonaro’s win.

Also read: Left and right battle for future of Brazil in runoff vote

‘It turned’

This was a narrow win for Luca Da Silva however. Bolsonaro had been leading during the first half of the count but soon da Silva overtook him. And, cars plying the streets of downtown Sao Paulo began honking their horns and people started shouting, “It turned”.

Da Silva’s headquarters too waited for the final results to be announced before they started celebrating. “They tried to bury me alive and I’m here,” he said in a jubilant speech to supporters and journalists on Sunday (October 30) evening, describing the win as his “political resurrection”.

“Starting on January 1, 2023, I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me. There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation,” Lula da Silva also said.

Outside Bolsonaro’s home in Rio de Janeiro, the mood was more sombre. Interestingly, it was close race as da Silva securing 60 million votes winning by a narrow margin of 50.8 per cent of the votes, while Bolsonaro got a 49.2 per cent share of the votes.

Da Silva’s leftist policies vs Bolsonaro’s conservative social values

Most opinion polls before the election had given the lead to da Silva, but the race had become tight towards the end. Opinion polls had underestimated Bolsonaro’s popularity, as many Brazilians supported Bolsonaro for championing conservative social values, and who also offered protection from leftist policies.

Bolsonaro’s administration, however, had eroded democratic institutions, and he was widely criticised for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. His tenure also saw the worst deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in 15 years.

Also read: Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro

Da Silva, a  former union leader with a blue-collar background, meanwhile, is credited with building an extensive social welfare programme during his 2003-2010 tenure that helped lift tens of millions into the middle-class. He had presided over an economic boom. But he got involved in a vast corruption scandal, and was jailed for for 19 months for corruption and money laundering in 2018. He was released in November 2019 on technical grounds after the Supreme Court allowed him to appeal in freedom. Da Silva had always denied any wrongdoing.

According to international news reports, Da Silva has an almost “mythical connection” with Brazil’s working class and is seen as an icon by the Latin American left. On the campaign trail, he pledged to increase the minimum wage and spend on the poor, and re-establish relationships with foreign governments and take bold action to eliminate illegal clear-cutting in the Amazon rainforest.

“I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, not just those who voted for me,” said da Silva in a statement after his win. “There is no such thing as two Brazils. We are a single country, a single people, a great country.”

During his election campaigns, da Silva in his speeches had often reminisced about a more promising era when Brazil had struck huge oil deposits and the exports of soybeans, beef, orange juice and sugar to China hit record highs. It had changed the lives of the poor in the country. But, this time around, the Brazilian leader is inheriting a very different and a heavily divided country.