Lula’s victory matters to the whole world — we must learn the lessons

Editorial / 29 October 2026 It’s time for the left to stand up to Burnham 29 October 2026 Editorial / 28 October 2026 The first Burnham Budget is miserably unambitious 28 October 2026 Editorial / 27 October 2026 Burnham at 100 days: must do better 27 October 2026 Editorial / 25 October 2026 Britain, climate chaos and war: our road to ruin 25 October 2026 Editorial / 23 October 2026 Freedom and sovereignty for Palestine is the only path to peace 23 October 2026 Editorial / 22 October 2026 Rejoining the EU won’t solve Britain’s economic crisis 22 October 2026 Editorial / 22 October 2026 Trump must not be allowed to restart war 22 October 2026 LULA’S victory in the Brazilian presidential elections is a win for both people and planet. It matters for the entire world.

The largest country in Latin America has held back the tide of far-right extremism sweeping the continent, installing Trump-aligned satraps joining their master’s war on workers’ rights, the environment and international law.

This is a huge setback for a US National Security Strategy pledged to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the western hemisphere.” Especially so as the US government didn’t hide its efforts to swing the election in favour of Flavio Bolsonaro, whose father Jair — jailed for involvement in an attempted coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula — was dubbed the “Trump of the tropics.”

A Bolsonaro win would have threatened crucial reforms from the Bolsa Familia social security programme to the recently secured five-day (rather than six-day) week.

It would have turbo-charged Trump’s efforts to shred the very concept of international law, lining Brazil up behind the inhuman siege of Cuba (combined with open calls from the US Secretary of State for Cubans to help the CIA overthrow their government), the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the lawless war on Iran.

And it would have had grave consequences for the planet in the country with the bulk of the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation rose 60 per cent, surging to 15-year highs, under Bolsonaro senior, as the interests of agribusiness and mining transnationals overrode concerns for the climate or indigenous rights.

Bolsonaro junior refuses to recognise the result, claiming a two-hour extension to polling booth opening times (which his own campaign, as well as that of Lula’s Workers Party, had called for in certain states due to weather-related transport disruption) invalidates the result. His bid to overturn the verdict will undoubtedly be backed by the White House.

The right have the ascendancy in Brazil’s National Congress. This will hamper Lula in the very reforms required to consolidate support — and could incubate regime-change projects.

The first time the Workers Party lost power after Lula’s original 2003 election was not through losing a presidential election, but when his elected successor Dilma Rousseff faced impeachment by Congress in a “constitutional coup” in 2016.

Every trick in the book has been used across Latin America to derail and remove left-wing governments — lawfare, subversion from within, coups constitutional and military, direct US attack. That book will be pored over by anti-democrats in Brasilia and Washington in coming weeks.

Securing the victory, and a wider international turn of the tide against the far right, means recognising factors common to Brazil and other countries, and learning the lessons.

One is that the Trump regime’s aggressive interventions in other states’ democratic processes is not confined to Latin America.

The same National Security Strategy asserting US supremacy in the Americas pledges support for “patriotic” (read far-right) parties across Europe, and the Trump administration has wined and dined these nasties in Britain itself.

More than in any previous election, the huge power of US-based, privately owned and Trump-allied tech giants became a live issue in this contest. Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, stands accused of intervening to advantage Bolsonaro through manipulating the reach of the rival camps’ messaging.

It denies it, but the fact a private company based in and beholden to the US has that power is a threat to democracy everywhere, and questions of digital sovereignty and ownership of the online commons loom larger than they did.

And Lula’s surprise turnaround between the first and second rounds rested on mass mobilisation of the people — face-to-face engagement of communities by the mass movement, rallies and neighbourhood conversations.

That remains our surest way to counter the power of money and defeat the far right.

Latin America / 27 October 2026 Bolsonaro banned from leaving Brazil 27 October 2026 Latin America / 26 October 2026 Lula in stunning Brazilian presidential election win 26 October 2026 Brazil / 13 October 2026 Brazil’s future hangs in the balance 13 October 2026 Second-round elections will determine not only the economic fate of 214 million Brazilians but also whether the country’s democratic gains and independent foreign policy will survive, write CARLOS MARTINEZ and SARA VIVACQUA

Latin America / 1 October 2026 What is at stake in Brazil’s knife-edge election 1 October 2026 Washington is pulling out all the stops to prevent a Lula victory and return Brazil to the fold of dependent South American states, argue CARLOS MARTINEZ and SARA VIVACQUA