Brazil’s leftist presidential candidate Lula da Silva won with 48.4% and over 6 million more votes than far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. The Workers’ Party is organizing with social movements in the lead-up to the October 30 runoff election.
Brazil’s left-wing former president Lula da Silva won the first round of the presidential election on October 2 with 48.43% of the vote.
Lula got over 6 million more votes than far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who earned 43.20%.
This put Lula just shy of the 50% he needed to avoid a runoff, which means the candidates will compete in round two on October 30.
To analyze the election results and what they mean for not just Brazil, but also Latin America and the world as a whole, Multipolarista editor Ben Norton spoke with journalist Camila Escalante, of Kawsachun News, who is reporting on the ground in São Paulo.
Escalante discussed what social movements in Brazil like the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) are saying, and why they are supporting Lula.
She also addresses how Bolsonaro’s policies have devastated Brazil’s economy, under the watch of Chicago Boy economic minister Paulo Guedes, an alumnus of the neoliberal University of Chicago who taught economics under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.