Isobel Hadley-Kamptz: The monsters always come back

As someone who grew up with 80's horror movies, I know that the monsters always come back. However, it is only in recent years that I have been forced to realize that the lessons from "Terror on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" now also apply to world politics.

Because it is genuinely shocking that in January 2021, American voters saw Donald Trump incite a violent mob against the Capitol as part of an attempted coup d'état — and then, not even four years later, again hand him the keys to the White House.

In Brazil, the risk is now imminent that voters on Sunday will do the same. Unlike the United States, they certainly managed to uphold the most important laws of democracy there and sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for planning a military coup. In the presidential election this year, the incumbent left-wing president Lula da Silva is therefore facing Bolsonaro's eldest son, Flávio.

Since he has promised to pardon his father if he wins (and wants to impeach the judge in the criminal case), you would have thought the Brazilians would turn a blind eye. But no, Flávio Bolsonaro won the first round of elections three weeks ago and is side by side with Lula da Silva ahead of the decision this weekend.

There are several reasons for this. One is that Father Bolsonaro has a large and devoted supporter base – remember he lost the 2022 election by a paltry 1.8 percentage points, despite, among other things, a covid policy that led to 400,000 extra deaths in Brazil. Many also believe that Lula ignored voters' most important issues, such as the cost of living and violent crime.

Some also indicate that the American IT giants, in the same way that they closed up around Trump, favored Bolsonaro during the election campaign. A UN report has pointed out that suspensions and technical problems have disproportionately affected Lula's campaign, and a Brazilian court has demanded proof from Meta that they are treating candidates equally.

As if that wasn't enough, the election campaign has been flooded with AI-generated videos. Some can be laughed at, like Bolsonaro seems to have replaced male supporters in his videos with fake female, scantily clad ones. Others are more serious, as when a working-class woman was watched by millions as she attacked Lula for both policy and personal morality. However, the woman does not really exist.

If Bolsonaro wins on Sunday, it will be another victory for global right-wing radicalism. World politics as a horror film for the entire planet.