Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Lula is not just back in power, he is promising to change how Brazil is governed. His consolidation of power after this morning’s victory must be the most cheerful news item to those struggling for substantive democracy around the world.
The Lula persona!
He and his country, the hegemon of Latin America, have delivered through this electoral victory the most significant moral and ideological slap and reversal for the march of right wing politics across the world.
His consolidation of power has extra significance in both electoral and strategic terms. Lula ‘s persona is itself a signal of the individual and collective capacity to overcome right wing pressure.
Although Flavio Bolsonaro, the youngster challenger is kicking and calling for annulment of the election, it is a case of the sun shining again for 80-year old Lula.
The Guardian (UK) is quoting Brazillian Health Minister and a Lula ideologue, Alexandre Padilha, as calling the electoral outcome a “a huge victory for the Brazilian people who in the second round had the chance to think about what President Lula means for the environment, for the defense of our national health service and our education system and the Brazilian constitution. And the risks that the extreme right candidate entailed.”
The Minister is contextualising it in global context too: “It’s a massive victory – not just for Brazil. It’s also an important signal to the rest of Latin America and to the world,”
The world will watch how Lula’s fourth and obviously the last term in office goes. Although he doesn’t have the drama and flash of a Castro, it will be surprising if he doesn’t end up as a global icon on the same scale at the end of the day.
With Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados, the hemispheric sun might be rising again, brilliantly!
