Lula narrowly beats far-right incumbent Bolsonaro to return as president of Brazil

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – known as Lula – narrowly defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday. By a slim 50.9% to 49.1% margin the Brazilian people rejected Bolsonaro’s far-right vision for the country and instead backed a candidate who centred social justice, environmental protection, defending democracy and reunifying the country in his campaign. And Lula’s win marks a remarkable political comeback.

After serving two terms as president between 2003 and 2011, Lula had hoped to seek a third in 2018. He was sidelined, however, after being jailed on disputed corruption charges – paving the way for Bolsonaro’s landslide victory. Lula was released from prison in November 2019 after spending 580 days in prison. It was only in 2021 that the Supreme Federal Court quashed his conviction, allowing him to stand for the presidency. There are now fears Bolsonaro will not concede having consistently challenged the process – he last year openly discussed refusing to accept the result of the vote, making baseless claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud. Sound like anyone else you know?

At home, Suella Braverman continues to dominate the headlines. The Times revealed yesterday that the Home Secretary – as well as having resigned/been sacked for leaking sensitive information – is alleged to have ignored legal advice warning that refugees were being detained for unlawfully long periods of time at a processing centre in Kent.

Even more grim: people are now asking whether the Home Office allowed the situation in the facility to deteriorate so that it serves as a deterrent to refugees. Conservative backbencher and local MP Roger Gale seems to think so. “This situation should never have been allowed to develop. And I’m not sure it hasn’t almost been developed deliberately,” he said this morning. “I was told that the Home Office was finding it very difficult to secure hotel accommodation. I now understand that this was a policy issue and a decision was taken not to book additional hotel space.”

Gale wants Braverman to answer questions about this in parliament – as does the Labour Party. The Speaker may grant an urgent question on the topic but, given her proclivity for dodging questions, it is unlikely that parliament will hear from the Home Secretary herself; two junior ministers were sent out to answer for the government while Braverman kept her head down last week. For now, the Home Secretary continues to cause problems for new PM Rishi Sunak – who just last week promised to usher in a new era of integrity and professionalism.