Leftist candidate Lula da Silva has defeated incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election, the final vote tally shows.
Lula “Da Silva received 50.9% of the vote and Bolsonaro 49.1%, according to the country’s election authority,” The Associated Press reported Monday morning.
This is a huge comeback for the left-wing politician. Lula, as Brazil’s president-elect is widely known, last served as the country’s president from 2003 to 2010.
Lula is the darling of the American left. Former U.S. President Barack Obama once hailed him as “the most popular president on Earth.” Lula has been one of the leading political backers of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s long-time Communist tyrant Fidel Castro.
Media reports suggest that with the margin of Lula’s victory less than a percentage point, Bolsonaro is yet to concede his defeat. It is worth noting that Lula was the mainstream media’s preferred candidate and had been leading in opinion polls by 6-7 points.
Reuters reported the election outcome:
Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far right incumbent did not concede defeat on Sunday night, raising concerns that he might contest the result.The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula the next president, with 50.9% of votes against 49.1% for Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old Lula’s inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 1.It was a stunning comeback for the leftist former president and a punishing blow to Bolsonaro, the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election.”So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognize my victory, and I don’t know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory,” Lula told tens of thousands of jubilant supporters celebrating his win on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Ave. (…)A source in the Bolsonaro campaign told Reuters the president would not make public remarks until Monday. The Bolsonaro campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro, a former artillery officer and anti-Communist, was elected to the nation’s highest office in 2018 with broad backing from an alliance of right-wing and center-right parties. He was much despised by the Liberal Western leaders and the mainstream media. The media despairingly referred to him as the “Tropical Trump” for his strong Christian and conservative views.
Even before the official result could be announced, U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the left-wing candidate.
This swift and coordinated messaging may be a part of a strategy to upend any attempts by Bolsonaro to challenge the narrow election result.
“Less than an hour after #Brazilelections results, Biden, Trudeau and Macron have all congratulated Lula, with Biden saying vote ‘free, fair and credible.’” This could be seen as a “[C]oordinated international campaign to preempt any Bolsonaro” attempt to contest the outcome, a French news agency AFP’s Washington-based correspondent noted on Twitter.
“The speed of the international reaction reflected widespread fears that Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has spent years attacking Brazil’s democratic institutions, might refuse to accept defeat,” the left-wing UK daily Guardian confirmed.
The mainstream cheered Lula’s victory. “Brazil has ousted President Jair Bolsonaro, rebuking the far-right incumbent and electing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,” The New York Times rejoiced.
Predicting a political witch-hunt against the outgoing president, the NYT added. “Bolsonaro, in defeat, may now face charges.”
“Brazil’s president-elect Luis Inácio Lula da Silva is a powerhouse of the Latin American left,” The Washington Post declared.
“The victory for Lula, who served two terms as president from 2003 to 2010 — returns a leftist titan of the Global South to the world stage, where his progressive voice will stand in sharp contrast to that of right-wing — and now one-term — President Jair Bolsonaro,” the newspaper added.
“Lula’s victory … consolidates the new shift to the left in Latin America, after swings in Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Chile and Colombia,” German state TV Deutsche Welle cheered.
Taking a partisan swipe at the outgoing president, Germany’s state-funded TV station declared: “The extreme right-wing ideas that in recent years have pushed into the mainstream need to go back into the hole they crawled out of.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY