Lula da Silva to make a surprise comeback

• Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva is chosen to be the next president of Brazil.
• His victory over Jair Bolsonaro signals a political about-face.
• He was imprisoned for 580 days.

Following a close run-off election on Sunday, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva has been chosen to be the next president of Brazil in an incredible comeback. After four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government, his triumph signals a political about-face for the biggest nation in Latin America.

With his victory, the 76-year-old politician brings the left back into power in Brazil and brings an end to a spectacular political comeback for Lula da Silva, who was imprisoned for 580 days following a slew of corruption allegations. His path to running for reelection was opened up when the Supreme Court later overturned the sentences.

In a triumphant speech to fans and journalists on Sunday night, he declared that the victory was his political “resurrection,” adding, “They attempted to bury me alive and I’m here.”

“I will rule for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me, starting on January 1, 2023. There is only one Brazil. Lula da Silva added, “We are one nation—one people, one wonderful nation.

He will assume control of a nation that is still working to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and is racked by extreme inequality. Between 2019 and 2021, 9.6 million individuals lived below the poverty line, while rates of literacy and school attendance had declined. He will also have to deal with a severely divided country and pressing environmental problems, such as the widespread destruction of the Amazonian rainforest.

After already leading Brazil for two terms in a row between 2003 and 2010, this will be his third tenure.

The former president’s victory on Sunday was the most recent in a wave of left-leaning candidates winning elections around Latin America. But throughout his campaign, Lula da Silva—a former union leader with a blue-collar background—sought to reassure moderates.

His broad coalition now includes a number of center- and center-right lawmakers, including former rivals from the PSDB, Brazil’s Social Democrat Party. Geraldo Alckmin, a former governor of So Paulo, is one of these politicians and has been mentioned by the Lula camp as a guarantee of moderation in his administration.

When it came to outlining an economic policy during the campaign, Lula da Silva was cautious to show his hand, which drew harsh criticism from his rivals. Who is the economy minister for the opposing candidate? He doesn’t say that there isn’t one.

According to Lula da Silva, he would lobby Congress to pass a tax reform that will exempt those with modest incomes from paying income tax. And the third-place finisher in the first round of voting earlier this month, centrist former presidential contender Simone Tebet, who endorsed Lula da Silva for the second round, provided his campaign a boost. In a press conference on October 7, Tebet, who is well-known for her connections to Brazil’s agriculture sector, declared that Lula da Silva and his economic team had “accepted and implemented all the suggestions from our program to his government’s agenda.”

Additionally, he has the backing of a number of well-known economists who are well-liked by investors, including Arminio Fraga, a former head of the Brazilian Central Bank.

More votes were cast for Lula da Silva than any other candidate in Brazilian history, beating his own record from 2006.

Even nevertheless, Bolsonaro’s victory was by a razor-thin margin; according to Brazil’s electoral authorities, Bolsonaro received 49.10% of the vote against Lula da Silva’s 50.90%.

Unifying a politically divided nation may be his hardest challenge at the moment.

Bolsonaro still hadn’t announced his defeat or made any public remarks hours after the results were made known. Videos posted to social media during this time revealed that his supporters had shut down two state highways in protest of Lula da Silva’s victory.

In a video shot in the southern state of Santa Catarina, one unnamed Bolsonaro supporter shouted, “We won’t leave until the army takes over the country.

According to Carlos Melo, a political scientist at Insper University in So Paulo, Lula da Silva will need to pursue discussion and repair relationships. As long as he is not simply concerned with speaking to his base of supporters, the president may be a useful tool in this, he said.

Meanwhile, environmentalists will be keenly monitoring Lula da Silva’s administration as it gains control over both the Brazilian nation and the greatest forest reserves on the planet.

Lula da Silva consistently stated throughout his campaign that he would work to stop deforestation, which has reached record levels under Bolsonaro’s leadership. He has stated that conserving the forest might result in some financial gain, citing the potential benefits of biodiversity for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

In an August interview with international media, Lula da Silva urged the creation of “a new world governance” to combat climate change and emphasized that Brazil should play a key role in that governance due to its natural riches.

Aloizio Mercadante, the leader of Lula da Silva’s government plan, claims that another strategy will be to form a coalition with Brazil, Indonesia, and Congo before the UN-led Conference of Parties in November 2022. The group would seek to exert pressure on wealthier nations to provide funding for the preservation of forests and to lay out plans for the global carbon market.

According to some analysts who spoke with CNN, Brazil’s foreign relations could be restarted by his position on the environment and the climate change issue.

After Bolsonaro warned the world against interfering in the destruction of the Amazon, Amparo believes that environmental protection might indeed serve as a springboard for Brazil’s global leadership. In the international arena, “Lula would try to recast, almost like a rebranding, Brazil as a power to be taken into account,” he said.

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