Lula brings a red tide to the streets to undertake the comeback and win the elections

The partial defeat a week ago shook the Brazilian left and its candidate like a shock. Once the shock was digested, they drew up strategies to resume the electoral campaign. A red tide, driven by young people, adolescents and Brazilians from the LGBT community, took over Paulista Avenue in São Paulo this Sunday in a democratic display of strength by progressives. “This country cannot lose democracy,” proclaimed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “We cannot allow the bandit to rule again.” The veteran politician and his people are embarked on the mission of mobilizing the 33 million abstentionists to come back. There are two weeks left until the elections.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro is the favorite to win on the 25th after leading Lula by 1.8 points. The leftist is close to a technical tie in the final duel, according to Datafolha. The comeback appears difficult, but not impossible. The 167 prophet cities, which this century have always given partial victory to whoever wins the final one, suggest that Bolsonaro has a two-thirds chance, and Lula a third, according to the newspaper Estadão.

It had been a long time since the Brazilian left had such a bath of crowds and self-esteem. Muriel Dias, 43, director of Human Resources, was here last Saturday, at Lula's last political event before the vote. “Today there are 100 times more people,” he says, with a certain exaggeration.

The protesters came driven by a sense of urgency. And they were noticeably younger than usual in recent years, Maray, 77, and Fausto, 81, founders of the PT almost half a century ago, noted from the sidewalk. Anthony, a 27-year-old stylist, convinced his friends to join the demonstration with the mission of coming back and for Lula to win. "I am not from the PT, but it is the best option we have. I am black, my mother is poor. I know what Lula has done. It is not the Government I want because I am a communist, but right now it is the best for everyone."

At the start of the second phase of the campaign, the two presidential candidates have immersed themselves fully in their respective roles. Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, urged his people not to relax because there is still a game to go. It adopted an institutional air to gather endorsements from the acronyms of the right and the defeated candidates. He met and posed with the 10 like-minded governors elected in the first round in a display of the enormous legislative and territorial power that the Liberal Party and its allies won at the polls on the 4th. Bolsonaro Jr. asks the electorate for an opportunity to oust Lula from power "because Brazil has had enough of Lula. Enough is enough." He announced “constitutional reforms to redemocratize Brazil” that send shivers among democrats. This Sunday, Bolsonaro was scheduled to meet with mayors of São Paulo, the state where the conservative right beat the Workers' Party by 26 points.

In front, the left united. With Lula and the PT at the head. The president, other leaders and the new parliamentarians spoke out. General mobilization on social networks and in the streets so that not a single faithful stops voting on the 25th and to persuade the 33 million abstainers to vote for Lula, even if it is with disgust. If not, they warn with a speech to incite fear, the seven evils will fall on Brazil at the hands of the Bolsonaros, which will destroy the social achievements of the progressive governments.

Wrapped in a rainbow flag, businesswoman Ana Nogueira, 41: "We are here because this is a moment of emergency. We have to preserve democracy," she said alongside Vânia Ferreira, a 55-year-old businesswoman, her wife of 18 years. They have set themselves the mission of getting a new voter for Lula every day. Lula promised that “in the next term” he will make “a technological revolution” in Brazil: “A revolution in public security to put criminals in jail.”

The left is working hard to fight on social networks, a key territory in Brazil and in which Bolsonarism has moved with enormous agility and effectiveness for years. These elections consolidated the phenomenon of the influential deputy, who jumped from TikTok in a pirouette straight to the seat.

Lula and his people deployed a colossal campaign that includes Lula memes created by artificial intelligence, testimonies of the opportunities created by the PT governments—the researcher who, thanks to scholarships, came from the impoverished northeast to Harvard; the black doctor who is the son of a single mother; the left-wing voter who drives a BMW—, patients who are still alive thanks to public healthcare, and celebrities over 70 who encourage their contemporaries to go to the polls. For adolescents aged 16 and 17 and those over 70, voting is not mandatory as for the rest.

Given that the undecided are around 1%, according to Datafolha, Lula's best option to overcome are the abstentionists. The president is running as a candidate of an alliance between seven parties, ranging from the left flank of the PT embodied by the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) to the center right represented by the vice presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, a conservative and interlocutor with a business community and investors who see Lula as a wasteful ruler.