Battle half won

Lula's return as president speaks of his appeal with Brazil's poorest people. But this time the country is bitterly divided and short on cash

- GUILHERME CASARÕES

LUIZ INÁCIO Lula da Silva's victory in Brazil's 2022 presidential race was nothing short of heroic. Despite being Brazil's most popular politician and its most successful president in the past 50 years he had to face two obstacles. The first was the persistent rejection of his Workers' Party in Brazilian politics since 2016. That is when former president Dilma Rousseff, Lula's ally, was ousted after a contentious impeachment trial on charges of corruption.

The second and more obvious obstacle was incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, who has an unparalleled capacity to mobilise the masses. The fact that Bolsonaro garnered more than 58 million votes (against Lula's 60 million) was proof of his strong and cohesive far-right supporting base. In his re-election bid, Bolsonaro deployed every state resource to benefit his Liberal Party by lowering fuel prices, expanding access to the country's emergency cash transfer programme and allocating federal budget. There were also allegations of vote-buying and voter suppression on his behalf during the elections.