Lula Casts Brazil’s Final Election as Fight for Sovereignty

The contest pits Lula against right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in what analysts expect to be Lula’s last presidential campaign. Over 47 % of voters backed Bolsonaro in the first round, leaving Lula slightly behind in the polls as the decisive Sunday runoff approaches.

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Lula’s narrative builds on a decade of political turbulence. After a 580-day imprisonment on a corruption conviction that was later overturned, he narrowly defeated Jair Bolsonaro in 2022. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup against Lula’s 2022 victory. Earlier this year, meetings between the Bolsonaro family and former U.S. President Donald Trump preceded new U.S. tariffs on Brazilian beef, coffee, fish and footwear. Lula has called those tariffs a “plot” driven by electoral objectives, while Eduardo Bolsonaro, residing in the United States, dismissed the measures as “bitter medicine” aimed at his father.

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Lula repeatedly accused the Bolsonaro family of being “subordinate to American interests” and claimed the tariffs resulted from a coordinated effort to harm Brazil’s economy. The U.S. State Department has denied any interference in Brazil’s election. Lula’s campaign also alleged that Meta, the parent of Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, manipulated social-media content ahead of the vote; Meta attributed the disruption to global technical glitches and denied political bias.

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The Bolsonaro family rejected Lula’s accusations, denying any coordination with the United States. Their rebuttal emphasizes that the tariffs were standard trade measures and that no external actors directed the campaign’s messaging.

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• “Lula is a symbol of the fight against Trump’s imperialism ... of the liberation of Latin America and the world,” — Paulo Saboia

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