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“Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has done it again: Twenty years after first winning the Brazilian presidency, the leftist defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro Sunday in an extremely tight election that marks an about-face for the country after four years of far-right politics. With 99.9% of the votes tallied in the runoff vote, da Silva had 50.9% and Bolsonaro 49.1%.” AP News
Here’s our prior coverage of Brazil’s election. The Flip Side
The right is disappointed by Lula’s victory.
“Latin America’s largest country is gambling again on left-wing populism that has failed so often in the past. Mr. da Silva, who served two presidential terms from 2003-2010, won with his appeals to the poor despite his conviction for corruption. Before his Workers’ Party (PT) ceded power in 2016, it orchestrated the largest corruption scheme in Latin American history, using the national development bank, the state-owned oil company, Congress and private contractors…
“Mr. Bolsonaro had a good economic story but he struggled to tell it against the media and elites who disliked his social conservatism and portrayed him as a threat to democracy. His shoot-from-the-lip rhetoric didn’t help and was especially unpopular with women…
“[He] owes his failure to win a second term to bad luck and his own political malpractice. He entered office as a disrupter seeking to reverse years of famous Brazilian underperformance. This meant major change, and he needed to persuade a powerful and pragmatic Congress to go along. Too often he alienated it.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Bolsonaro “struck a chord with a middle class acutely aware of the need to liberate the country from the shackles of decades-old interventionism. Bolsonaro’s government has reduced spending on pensions, the largest source of government expenditure; undertaken $35 billion worth of privatization projects; deregulated some areas of the economy; and given the central bank its independence — a reason why inflation is coming down and the currency has appreciated against the dollar…
“Brazil was the first economy to recover from the pandemic in Latin America; economic growth has picked up; and thousands of jobs are being created. This helps explain Bolsonaro’s first-round performance. How tragic that Lula, who embodies much of what is wrong with Latin American politics, could come back to power, especially now that many countries are in the grips of autocratic, left-wing populist governments.”
Álvaro Vargas Llosa, National Review
“Beyond Brazil, Lula’s return is a major victory for left-wing movements across South America. When he takes office at the beginning of 2023, only Ecuador and Uruguay will be governed by leaders not openly associated with the cause of international socialism, similar to the ‘Pink Tide’ that swept the continent at the turn of the 21st century…
“Though given the unenviable economic record of many of these governments, from Argentina and Bolivia to Venezuela and Peru, as well as the cyclical nature of politics, it is likely only a matter of time before the pendulum swings back the other way.”
Ben Kew, Spectator World
The left celebrates Lula’s victory.
The left celebrates Lula’s victory.
“Bolsonaro’s speech on Tuesday indicated that he is prepared to leave office, and to do so without a real effort to disrupt the transfer of power to Lula, despite months of agitating his supporters with unfounded claims of possible election fraud. Bolsonaro may not have had any choice. Even as the president stayed silent, Brazil’s political, religious, and business leaders — including some of Bolsonaro’s closest allies — affirmed Lula’s electoral victory and promised to work with the new administration…
“The military and police, always a potential wild card, also don’t appear to be agitating to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. ‘At the institutional level, everyone is acting very responsibly, so Bolsonaro doesn’t have traction there,’ said Paulo Barrozo, an associate law professor at Boston College. That institutional bulwark, if it holds, and Lula’s victory itself are signs that Brazil’s democracy withstood Bolsonaro’s very real threat. There are sighs of relief and celebration from many of Lula’s supporters and Bolsonaro’s opponents who see Lula’s win as an opportunity to restore and shore up the country’s political system.”
Jen Kirby, Vox
“Lula had an immense stock of goodwill to draw on from Brazil’s working people because of the stunning program of practical, easy-to-grasp help that he delivered during his two terms of office between 2003 and 2010…
“The Wall Street Journal quotes a lab technician, Germano Silva, recalling how under Lula’s presidency he could afford to travel by airplane for the first time instead of taking a long bus ride. He put three children through college, thanks to a new government scholarship program enacted under Lula. ‘My vote is one of gratitude,’ he said…
“Until Biden managed to get a one-year universal basic income for parents, Democrats delivered nothing remotely close over the past three Democratic presidencies. They are now having to rebuild credibility with cynical working-class voters, starting about 40 points down. Lula, by contrast, delivered the kind of unapologetic help to ordinary Brazilian people that a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren might have delivered… Democrats have a lot to learn from Lula.”
Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
“Since Mr Bolsonaro took office in 2019, forest fires and deforestation soared in the Amazon, with the federal government turning a blind eye to illegal logging, mining, cattle-grazing and land-grabbing. Brazil’s rainforest went from a carbon sink to a carbon source. If allowed to continue, the damage to the world’s lungs would have been irreversible – with disastrous effects on global weather systems and food security. Lula, as he is universally known, pledged to reverse his predecessor’s policies that have worsened the climate emergency. The world will breathe more easily as a result.”
Editorial Board, The Guardian
A libertarian's take
“Economic growth helped [Bolsonaro] strengthen his political base in Brazil's industrious Southeast and in the interior, agricultural regions. But his governing style repelled enough urban, so-called centrist voters to push da Silva over the finish line, even if just barely. True to form, Bolsonaro had not conceded nearly 48 hours after his electoral defeat, thus sparking worries regarding his previous threats not to recognize the election's results if he lost. His officials, however, seem to have begun the transition…
“As elsewhere, wokeism is out of control in Brazil—and this purportedly helped Bolsonaro—but it's quite another thing to, say, celebrate the military regimes of the 1960s, or to call into question the validity of Brazilian democracy. For his part, da Silva managed to portray himself as a moderate once he had gained the backing of several high-profile politicians not associated with the political left. These included his former rival in the 2006 presidential election, Geraldo Alckmin, who became da Silva's vice presidential nominee. Bolsonaro remained combative.”
Daniel Raisbeck, Reason
