In a major snub to the US’s Demopublican poverty-inducing model of development, Brazilians elected Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva to the presidency again on Sunday, ousting the incumbent conservative by less than 2% of the vote. cementing Latin America’s shift to the left. Latin America’s largest country is once again on a socialist course—and not the ‘Potemkin village’ socialism alleged by Republicans against Democrats.
After a marathon of campaign rallies in the poorest corners of the country to appeal to voters hungry for a return to Brazil’s more prosperous past, Mr. da Silva, who last presided over Brazil from 2003 to 2010, clinched 60 million votes to secure 50.9% of the electorate to 49.1% for his rival in the runoff, with 99.5% of the votes counted, electoral authorities reported.
Mr. da Silva’s victory in Brazil means that every major country in Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico, will be led by a leftist government when he takes office on Jan. 1.
The seventh son of illiterate farm workers who later lost a finger in an industrial accident, Mr. da Silva, 77, has an almost mythical connection with Brazil’s working class and is seen as an icon by the Latin American left. On the campaign trail, he pledged to increase the minimum wage and spend on the poor—popular proposals among millions of families suffering from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic crisis.
Mr. da Silva’s victory was met with elation among supporters who filled São Paulo’s main Paulista Avenue, many draped in the red flag of his Workers’ Party. For Mr. da Silva—better known in Brazil and internationally as Lula—it was his sixth presidential race since 1989, marking a return to power 12 years after he left office.
For many voters, Mr. da Silva offered a return to a more prosperous past. In his two terms that ended in 2010, more than 25 million people rose out of poverty, according to the Getulio Vargas Foundation. Many Brazilians for the first time became homeowners and splurged on appliances. A Chinese-fed commodities boom left Brazil flush with cash, able to pay off international loans and attract the admiration of world leaders, among them then-President Barack Obama, who at a summit referred to Mr. da Silva as “my man” and called him “the most popular politician on earth.”
The conservative incumbent 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.
The pandemic made change harder, but his government achieved significant deregulation and fiscal reform. He spent liberally to sustain businesses and households during peak Covid-19, but he later cut spending by paring credit subsidies to agriculture and industry, slowing the growth of social assistance and reducing government payrolls. Fiscal restraint took pressure off the central bank, and inflation has been coming down. At about 7% it’s now lower than in the U.S.
When Lula is inaugurated in January, South America will now largely be run by socialist governments. Lula co-founded the hard-left São Paulo Forum with Fidel Castro, and he joins ideological allies governing Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela. Further north, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba and Mexico are also run by leftists.
Amid the celebrations among Mr. da Silva’s followers on Sunday night, some Brazilians and political analysts also expressed alarm over how Mr. Bolsonaro would respond to the loss.
An ex-army captain who served under the 1964-85 military dictatorship, he had repeatedly throughout the campaign said that the vote would be marked by widespread fraud and that he would be robbed of victory, without presenting evidence. He had also said he would only accept the result if it were “clean.” At the end of July, nearly 40% of Brazilians in a Datafolha poll expressed concern he would lead a military uprising to stay in power if he lost the vote.
Mr. da Silva pledged to reverse Bolsonaro policies. For environmentalists and some Western governments—including the U.S.—among the most pressing tasks is reducing deforestation in the Amazon. Under the Bolsonaro administration, government data shows an area nearly the size of Maryland was deforested, as funding for environmental enforcement was cut and the president publicly expressed support for ranchers and miners in the Amazon.
Outlining his vision in a 121-point statement in June, Mr. da Silva vowed to give the government a central role in the economy and has strongly opposed privatization of state companies. He has promised to eliminate income tax for anyone earning less than $950 a month, the majority of the country, and find ways to increase taxes on the rich.
Eliminating income tax for the poor and a government that serves people instead of profits…a left turn for Latin America indeed!