Lula’s victory may be a turning point for Latin America

At 80, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the runoff with 51.8 percent of the vote, after trailing Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round, 45 percent to 47 percent. Lula’s victory halts the far right’s return to power in Brazil, breaks a succession of right-wing electoral wins across the region and deals a blow to Donald Trump’s interventionist agenda in the Western Hemisphere. Following the first-round result, three weeks of political mobilisation turned the Workers’ Party campaign into a contest over Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty. The article points to the government’s economic record, including 9.2 percent cumulative growth from 2023 to 2025, unemployment falling to 5.4 percent in 2026, and Brazil’s exit from the UN Hunger Map in 2025.