The social democratic incumbent Lula da Silva narrowly won the runoff vote in the Brazilian presidential election. The right-wing opponent Flávio Bolsonaro is not recognizing the election for the time being. The election was previously extended by two hours.

will immensely influence Brazil's domestic and foreign policy and also have international implications. As incumbent president, Da Silva repeatedly drew attention to his previous achievements during the election campaign. He said he had brought economic growth to the country and promoted the fight against poverty and hunger.

Lula also campaigned for environmental and climate protection during the election campaign. Under Lula's government, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is currently at an all-time highlowest level

Flávio Bolsonaro is following in the footsteps of his father, ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who has now been sentenced to house arrest. He stands for a libertarian-right policy based on the US government. The plans to pardon his father also polarized the population.

supports. He promised his supporters budget cuts, tax cuts and the “war on drugs”.

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After the announcement of theElection results

Lula justified the demand with local buses that are being phased out in several cities

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Brazil's importance to the USA

During the election campaign, Da Silva repeatedly emphasized Brazil's independence from other states and wanted to have diplomatic and trade relations in all directions. After an election victory, Bolsonaro again held out the prospect of joining the USA. Bolsonaro is also close to the Trump administration in terms of domestic policy. He aims for libertarian politics in the style of Javier Milei's Argentina. In doing so, he uses classic narratives of the New Right, which are expressed, for example, in his hate speech against queer people.

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Accusations of interference against the USA

influence

Most recently there were internal messages from the social media companyhighlighted that Silva's ability to distribute his content on the Instagram platform had been restricted. Meanwhile, the platform's algorithm gave Bolsonaro's content priority. The group announced that the restrictions were technical errors. It was not intended to influence the election campaign.

Protests in the run-up to the election

, where the population expressed their displeasure with Bolsonaro. The trigger was the presidential candidate's high ratings in the first round of voting at the beginning of October.

These were the largest protests by the Brazilian political left in over three decades. Many demonstrators are young people and students who had their first experiences with politics during the protests against Bolsonaro. However, the demonstrations went beyond mere student protests and encompassed a broad section of the

Lula da Silva wins runoff against Bolsonaro in Brazilperspective