Brasilia. Incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been declared the winner of the presidential election in Brazil, but his right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro does not want to recognize the official result.
The son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, announced that he would take legal action because the opening hours of the polling stations were extended at short notice by two hours. The Supreme Electoral Court had previously declared the 80-year-old left-wing politician Lula the election winner with 51.8 to 48.2 percent of the vote.
This means that Brazil is once again facing politically turbulent times following an election defeat by the right-wing camp. In 2023, angry supporters of the elected President Jair Bolsonaro, who also did not want to recognize his election defeat, stormed the government district in the capital Brásilia. The ex-military man was later sentenced to 27 years in prison and banned from holding office for an attempted coup, which is why his son Flávio took his place.
With Lula's victory, Brazil remains an important counterpoint to the shift to the right in Latin America: Since Donald Trump became US President again, right-wing governments have come to power in Bolivia, Chile and Colombia, among others. Trump's government is now also working more closely with Venezuela after the arrest of the authoritarian head of state Nicolás Maduro by the US military. “The result is a setback for President Donald Trump, who had tried to build a conservative, US-aligned bloc across Latin America with Argentina, Colombia and other countries,” commented the “Washington Post” on the election results.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Lula, who was just behind Bolsonaro in the first round of voting and achieved a catch-up race that was unprecedented in Brazil in recent times: “Democracy and multilateralism have triumphed in Brazil,” she wrote on Platform X. Europe's partnership with Brazil is flourishing, and together we will continue to work closely for free and open trade. “For a rules-based world order,” she concluded her congratulations.
Other Latin American heads of state who belong to the right-wing spectrum congratulated the 80-year-old election winner despite their different political orientations, including Chile's right-wing conservative President José Antonio Kast and Peru's President Keiko Fujimori. Mexico's left-leaning President Claudia Sheinbaum was happy with him about the election victory. Spain's left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is under great pressure and called early elections for November 29th, apparently euphorically wrote on X: "What happened in Brazil will also happen in Spain. The comeback of global progressivism has only just begun."
In the first round of voting, Lula was around 45 percent behind Flávio Bolsonaro, who got around 47 percent. Ultimately, for the first time since the reintroduction of direct presidential elections in 1989, a candidate who had been behind in the first round managed to make up the deficit in the runoff. With the election victory, Lula can also become the first Brazilian president to be democratically elected to office four times. He will be 81 years old when he takes office in January 2027 - assuming Bolsonaro's resistance is unsuccessful.
“This election was a defeat for the deniers,” said Lula in a hoarse voice as he appeared before the press for his first statement, visibly exhausted after a tough campaign. He then appeared in front of thousands of cheering supporters on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo - and sang the national anthem with them.
People across the country took to the streets to celebrate Lula's re-election. However, many Brazilians who had hoped for a Bolsonaro victory are also disappointed or angry about the result. The largest and most economically powerful country in Latin America was already deeply divided politically before the vote, but given the initial reaction of the election loser, this is unlikely to change - on the contrary.
Around 159 million Brazilians were called to vote - and many of them benefited from the social and economic policy successes of Lula's left-wing workers' party PT. Under his administration, unemployment fell to historic lows, poverty fell, and the minimum wage rose. Parliament also decided to gradually introduce a five-day week with two days off. Deforestation in the Amazon region, the largest tropical rainforest in the world, also declined.
At the same time, the people's dissatisfaction with the increased cost of living remained high. The government was burdened by high national debt, Lula's high-spending policies and a scandal involving alleged pension insurance fraud. During the election campaign, the president was unable to convince many voters with his record. Many Brazilians would instead like to see the Bolsonaro family return to power.
Political scientist Oliver Stuenkel believes that Lula's campaign has focused too long on past successes - and not enough on future plans. Only after the first round of elections did she try harder to appeal to voters outside the left-wing camp.
Lula ruled Brazil from 2003 to 2010, and the former trade unionist from the poorer northeast has held the highest state office again since 2023. Now he faces a difficult fourth term in office.
Public safety was one of the most important election issues. Criminal organizations have considerable influence and many citizens do not feel safe. Lula said he wanted to set up a ministry of public security. Like his father, Flávio Bolsonaro promoted a tough security policy and announced the construction of high-security prisons based on the model of El Salvador.
Both also attacked each other personally during the election campaign. In a TV duel, Flávio Bolsonaro described Lula as a politician who Brazil should finally retire because of his age. Lula accused his challenger of only knowing the hard life of the working class from literature. Both sides also made allegations of corruption. Lula's campaign also accused Facebook Group Meta of discriminating against her content. Meta denied this accusation.
Lula's election victory does not resolve tensions between the government, Congress and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court played a central role in the proceedings against Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest. His son announced that he would campaign for an amnesty for his father if he won the election.
During the election campaign, Lula opposed greater political and economic dependence on Washington, which his supporters had criticized under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro and feared under Flávio. “Brazil does not fit into any country’s backyard,” Lula said at the recent UN general debate. His relationship with Trump is likely to remain difficult.
As far as the Amazon is concerned, Lula will probably continue on his current course. Deforestation fell significantly under his government, but at the same time there were controversial infrastructure projects - and he is still a long way from achieving his desired goal of stopping deforestation by 2030.
