Lula, the extraordinary life of the tireless champion of the Brazilian left

Rio de Janeiro

He will celebrate his 81st birthday this Tuesday and says he is “in better shape than ever”. Some wanted to bury the icon of the Latin American left. But the former “metalworker” whose life was marked by drama, victories, falls and rebirth, did not give up. Re-elected this Sunday as President of Brazil, after the closest second round in the country's history, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is offering himself a fourth (and final?) mandate in the Planalto Palace in Brasilia.

Beaten in the first round of the presidential election by his conservative opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro, the progressive candidate made an unexpected turnaround, sparking jubilation in his camp. Leaving prison in November 2019 after 580 days of detention, he warned: “The Northeastern who survived hunger fears nothing.” He has just proven it once again, after a violent campaign where he was sometimes described as a drunkard, a thief when he was not compared to a...