Yves here. We are running this Common Dreams post to acknowledge the importance of Lula’s success over Trump-backed right-winger Flávio Bolsonora and to give readers the opportunity to discuss it before Nick Corbishley weighs in, as I anticipate he will tomorrow. I was not as surprised as some observers might have been. A Brazil-based reader made clear how alarming the prospect of a Bolsonaro-clan return was to many Brazilians, and the resulting intensity of sentiment and organizing to prevent this outcome. Among other things, he sent videos of the many, impressively large pro-Lula rallies across Brazil before voting started.
Many are already pointing out that this win has set back the Trump goal of turning Latin American into captive region. Even though I have been loudly skeptical about BRICS, as in the messaging being well ahead of actual and prospective accomplishments, nevertheless its very existence is deeply disturbing to the Trump regime and imperialists generally. Brazil falling into the arms of the US would have delivered a serious blow to BRICS’ prospects.
The article describes other broader benefits to Lula’s victory, such as his success in reducing Amazon deforestation, which will hopefully continue and be extended.
Note Bolsonoro and his backers are not content to lick their wounds. Bolsonoro has not conceded to Lula and seems likely to contest the results in the courts, as well os on the streets.
Both sides are pointing to anomalies. I am not persuaded by the first take given the intensity of the organizing after the first round plus the famed 2016 anomaly of Trump beating Hillary despite Hillary outspending her by roughly 2x:
This is the first time since 1989 that a candidate came behind in the first round of presidential elections in Brazil and then managed to win in the second round. Another big statistical anomaly is that Lula gained votes in 98% of the country – just stating some facts here https://t.co/qhFk84bKwN
— JustDario (@DarioCpx) October 26, 2026
But:
Mira como Lula perdió su ventaja en minutos https://t.co/9iMaraHbBP
— Simón Levy (@SimonLevyMx) October 25, 2026
Additional hot takes on Twitter:
Caralho, esse é sem dúvidas um dos vídeos mais espetaculares da história do Brasil!
Milhões e milhões de pessoas na Avenida Paulista comemorando a reeleição do Lula.
A ESQUERDA BRASILEIRA É UM FENÔMENO! https://t.co/LPx9DSVYMJ
— rodriguesˢᶜᶜᵖ (@NJanfren) October 26, 2026
Flávio Bolsonaro won 155 of Brazil’s 200 most evangelical municipalities. His father won 130 in 2022. The Christian Zionist political machine is expanding.
British imperial policy in the 1840s promoted Protestant institutions and Jewish restoration in Palestine. John Nelson Darby’s dispensationalism helped shape the prophetic worldview that later influenced Anglo-American Christian Zionism. Since 1977, Likud’s Revisionist Zionists made a strategic priority of partnering with Christian fundamentalists. The theology came first. The political alliance came later.
That theology has been turned against the Sermon on the Mount. Love of neighbor has been replaced with hatred of Muslims, and reason with prophecy.
Flávio’s promise to move Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem and align the country with Israel against Iran gives that mobilization a geopolitical direction.
The pastors mobilize the faithful. The Chicago Boys write the policy. Wall Street and Washington collect the resources.
Lula won today. The machine lost the election, but not its personnel, its funding, or its plan. The pastors still have their congregations, and the congregations are still clamouring for the rapture and speaking in tongues.
— 🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 (@apocalypseos) October 26, 2026
🇧🇷 SE ENTERRÓ SOLO
En pleno debate, Bolsonaro se burló de Lula al decirle "Nueves Dedos". La respuesta de Lula fue tan demoledora que el propio Bolsonaro le terminó pidiéndole disculpas ante millones de televidentes.
Lula perdió uno de sus dedos trabajando siendo menor de edad.— El Prensero (@El_Prensero) October 24, 2026
ganó Lula, va a prohibir para siempre las casas de apuestas y van a desaparecer el flamengo y el palmeiras https://t.co/j6YKB404KQ
— Peñargrol (@CAPArgento__) October 26, 2026
Mr. Market is having a tantrum:
BREAKING: Brazil’s stock market collapses nearly -30% and the Brazilian Real loses -10% after President Lula da Silva is unexpectedly re-elected.
Brazil’s stock market has lost over $200 billion of market cap today. https://t.co/XsHVYmepvV
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 26, 2026
By Olivia Rosane, the opinion editor and a staff writer for Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
In a historic comeback, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva triumphed in Sunday’s run-off election over right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President and convicted coup-plotter Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula’s victory comes despite the best efforts of US President Donald Trump and his Big Tech backers, as Trump’s administration openly intervened on behalf of Bolsonaro and Meta boosted pro-Bolsonaro over pro-Lula content on its social media platforms.
“Lula won, Brazil won, democracy won, the Americas won,” said Pennsylvania Democratic House nominee Chris Rabb from Lula’s campaign headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after the results were announced around 9:15 pm Brasilia time. “They declared victory for Lula da Silva for his fourth term against a raging fascist, rubber-stamped for Donald Trump.”
Rabb noted that Lula’s victory marked an important turning point for the left in Latin America, as far-right parties hadwon every other national election in the region since the start of Trump’s second term. “This is the first victory for democracy in this hemisphere since Trump took office,” Rabb said.
With 99.99% of the votes counted, Lula won by 51.79% to Bolsonario’s 48.21%, making him the first Brazilian candidate since the restoration of democracy in 1985 to win a second-round election after coming in second in the initial round.
“I would like to thank the Brazilian people for the generosity they have shown me for a long time,” Lula said in his victory speech in São Paulo late Sunday. “And, in this second round, I want to thank the generosity of the Brazilian youth, who took to the streets to defend democracy.”
After finishing two percentage points behind Bolsonaro in the October 4 poll, Lula re-energized his campaign by finally shortening the Brazilian workweek from six to five days, as his supporters launched demonstrations against the far-right.
“These elections have represented a historic victory for the majority of the Brazilian people, who mobilized to defend democracy against the threat of fascism,” Francesca Emanuele, senior international policy associate with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), told Common Dreams from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she was monitoring the elections. “It was the Brazilian people themselves (students, working-class, and middle-class Brazilians) who took to the streets and mobilized tirelessly from the very first day after the first round of voting to overturn the first-round results and secure Lula’s victory.”
Reginaldo Lopes, a federal deputy for Lula’s Workers’ Party, told The Guardian: “I feel incredible… This is Brazil telling the world that the extreme right is fascist, that the extreme right is against Black people, is against the poor, against the state, against gay people… We are going to reorganize the democratic forces [in this country.]”
Sunday’s victory did not come easily, as the Lula campaign complained of bus shortages in the key cities of Salvador and Sao Paulo, requesting that the Brazilian Supreme Court extend the voting by two hours. The court granted the request, so polls closed at 7 pm Brasilia time instead of 5 pm.
“Lula has won despite the unfair practices his campaign has faced from Meta, interference from the Trump administration, and severe disruptions to public transportation on election day in major cities (where up to 50% of bus fleets were reportedly out of service),” Emanuele told Common Dreams. “These disruptions disproportionately affected working-class voters, who rely heavily on public transportation and have historically been a key part of Lula’s electoral base.”
She continued: “Despite all these obstacles, Lula’s campaign managed to turn around a first-round result that, just a few weeks ago, had seemed extremely difficult to reverse. This is a major victory for the majority of the Brazilian people.”
Several advocates and lawmakers hailed the election results as a rebuke to the far-right and the Trump administration in particular.
“During his campaign, President Lula characterized 2026’s elections as a choice between ‘sovereignty or submission.’ Brazil has clearly chosen sovereignty,” the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who sent a delegation to observe both rounds of Brazil’s elections, wrote in a statement.
Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) posted on social media: “People all across the world are fighting back against extremism. With Lula in Brazil, they just won. Authoritarian leaders always attack democracy because they stand no chance against the will of their people. Trump must respect the results and not undermine Brazil’s elections.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: “Congratulations to Lula on his extraordinary reelection victory in the Brazilian presidential election. Lula has stood up for Brazilian workers & democracy—and will continue to do so in the next four years.”
“Lula’s hard-fought victory is an indictment on the right-wing wave sweeping through Latin America,” Joseph Bouchard, a journalist and researcher who focuses on Latin America, told Common Dreams. “Except for [ Salvadorian President Nayib] Bukele, the right across the region is still incredibly unpopular, and rightly seen as corrupt, autocratic, and uncommitted to fixing systemic issues. Lula shows there is still a fight for democracy worth having, while the region is plunged into its darkest, most regressive period since the Cold War. The entire region is populated by vassal states for US interests, who have declared states of exception to curtail rights, freedoms, and basic principles of social democracy, in the name of a failed and anti-human war on drugs.”
Lula’s victory also has planetary consequences, as he brought deforestation in the Amazon rainforest back down to record lows after it accelerated during the tenure of Jair Bolsonaro, who attacked environmental protections and Indigenous rights.
“Lula’s win is the first good news for the planet in a while!” wrote 350.org and Third Act co-founder Bill McKibben. “I bet it shaves a tenth of a degree off how hot our Earth eventually gets, which will save millions of lives. Thank you Brazil!”
Lula still faces a fight ahead, as Bolsonaro announced it was “impossible to concede the election result” due to the extension of polling hours, even though his team had also sought an extension in parts of southeastern Brazil because of unfavorable weather.
Bouchard pointed out that “Lula will fight an uphill battle with a far-right Congress, inept Supreme Court, and constant outside pressure..”
“Trump’s silence on the result is worrisome, with Flavio not conceding and demanding an annulment,” he told Common Dreams. “Sadly, much of the corporate press has legitimated these claims, despite the right’s concerted efforts at destroying democracy. No matter how much the authoritarians try to tip the scales, the people can still prevail, if the left is willing to fight. This might prove to be a confidence boost to the demoralized and overpowered left all over the region, and may hopefully set the region back toward progress, hard fought after decades of dictatorship and neoliberal transitions.”
US-based Lula allies urged others in the US to defend Brazil’s democracy from Trump administration interference and to take their own stand against the far-right in the upcoming midterm elections.
The DSA wrote:
However, the fight continues—the thin margin of this victory indicates that continued struggle and mobilization will be crucial. As global capitalism fails to solve worsening problems of its own making, the capitalists turn to right-wing authoritarianism. Brazil’s left-wing coalition will face a right-wing Congress at home, a hostile Trump administration in the US, and hostile capitalists both [at] home and abroad in the years ahead. We of the DSA stand in solidarity with our comrades in the PT [Lula’s Partido dos Trabalhadores], PSOL [Brazil’s left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party], and Brazilian social movements in this fight for democratic self-determination.
This solidarity means recognizing our country’s role in the threat to Brazilian democracy. These elections were marred by interference from the US, whether by Trump’s politically motivated tariffs, or by manipulation of social media by US-based tech companies like Meta. They aimed to subvert Brazil’s democracy to favor its far-right allies grouped in the “Shield of the Americas,” and to get their hands on crucial natural resources, such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth minerals as well as petroleum and iron ore, which Brazil possesses in abundance and which Lula has sworn to protect as national patrimony. The DSA categorically denounces these meddlesome, imperialist efforts. We fight for a working-class foreign policy—one which centers peace, multilateralism, and respects national self-determination, free from US interference.
Rabb concluded his message with a call to action, and a celebration: “This is a big deal for us in the United States. This shows that Trumpismo is waning, and it is our responsibility now to make sure that we kill the beast. That beast is injustice, it’s oligarchy, it’s neoliberalism. All of these things. Now it’s our turn, folks. November 3 is right around the corner, but right now I’m going to party with these Brazilians.”