How Brazil's President Lula beat Bolsonaro in a runoff election | Global News Podcast

This is the global news podcast from the. BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross. Coming. up, has Brazil stopped the conservative. wave sweeping across Latin America, the. leftist president Luis Anasio Lula. Dilva, has been reelected in a stunning. comeback over Flavio Balsson, the son of. former president Gier Balssonso, whose. family has close ties to Donald Trump. We'll hear from our correspondent in the. capital, Brazilia. The stage was set. here for a victory speech by Flavio. Bolsinaro. This has been a huge upset.

for his campaign after he won the first. round. >> And find out why Mr. Balssonaro refuses. to accept defeat. >> He says the results are impossible to. recognize. The second round was a dirty. trick. >> Plus, we'll ask our analysts what all. this means for the relationship with the. US. >> Which Trump are we will Lula get? Is it. the friendly I like winners Trump or is. it the hostile Trump that wants Jay. Bosonado freed from jail?

Just a few weeks ago, it looked as. though Brazil was set to become the. latest country in Latin America to see a. right-wing leader supported by Donald. Trump sweep to power. Favio Balssons, whose father is known as the Trump of. the tropics, emerged from the first. round of voting as the favorite. But the. left-wing incumbent Lula made a stunning. comeback, winning a decisive victory in. a run-off election on Sunday night, beating Mr. Balssonaro by 4 million. votes. This will be Lula's fourth.

non-consecutive term as president. He. has championed the fight against climate. change and deforestation in the Amazon, cut the length of the work week, and. been a harsh critic of President Trump. Our correspondent Ioni Wales reports. from the capital, Brazilia. The streets of Brazil lit up bright in. red. With their fingers and thumbs, the. crowds form an L for Lula. The name of Brazil's left-wing. president. A rallying cry sung by his. supporters.

>> I want to thank Brazilian people for the. generosity they have shown me for a long. time. And in the second round to thank. the generosity of the Brazilian youth. who took the streets. took the streets. to defend democracy. >> Few thought President Leela's. re-election was possible a few weeks. ago. He came second in the first round. of voting, but his supporters put on. huge rallies to get his vote out.

>> I am so happy, so happy, and relieved. It takes a lot of work to live through a. historic moment. A lot of cardio. Your. heart rate goes up, but I'm so happy and. so, so, so relieved. Lula beat the. right-wing senator Flavio Bolsinaro, son. of the former president Jaier Bolsinaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup. after losing the last election. Like his father in 2022, Flavio did not. recognize this result.

>> It's impossible to recognize the result. of these elections under these. conditions. >> The stage was set here for a victory. speech by Flavio Bolsinaro. This has. been a huge upset for his campaign after. he won the first round. And just now he. has finished speaking. He says what. happened was inexplicable, that it was. impossible. And he is arguing that this. election should be annoyed. This could. sew the seeds for a lot of unrest. amongst his supporters. Some of his. supporters in Brazilia were already.

questioning the process. >> There is something fishy here and we. will have to be aware of that. Unfortunately, Voting was extended for two hours after. both campaigns said transport issues and. bad weather were affecting turnout. The result was confirmed by the. president of Brazil's top electoral. court himself appointed by Ja Bolsinaro. The question now is how Bolsinaro and.

his supporters respond in the coming. weeks. For Lula's supporters, the celebrations. are just beginning. But when their honeymoon is over and the. hangover sets in, this will not be an. easy few years. President Lula once. again presiding over a deeply divided. country. >> Ioni Wells reporting there. Well, as you. heard, Flavio Balsson has refused to. accept the results of the election. But.

what grounds does he have to contest. them? That was a question I put to our. global affairs reporter, Mimi Swaybe. Lots of people have been saying that. people who voted for Lula or Flev. Bossaro wasn't in fact because they. liked that candidate. It was because. they hated the other one more. And that. is something that will carry on with. Lula. He's now basically got just under. half the population who voted for his. rival. But Flav Bolsaro has said he's. not even going to concede to this. defeat. He says the results are. impossible to recognize. is the second.

round was a dirty trick and it all. centers around the Supreme Court. extending the voting period by 2 hours. Lula asked for this to be happen because. he was uh concerned buses weren't or. public transport weren't being operated. allowing his supporters to get to. polling stations. Flav Bolsinaro also. requested this but for a different. reason. He said heavy rainfall was. stopping his voters getting to polling. stations in places like Sa Paulo a. stronghold. However, he then went back. on this and said, "Actually, we cannot. uh have these results this because this.

has never happened in Brazil before." He. then said it was unacceptable ruling by. the Supreme Court Justice Cristiano. Xanin by extending these voting hours. He doesn't really have much of a legal. basis to stand on though because the. president of the superior electoral. court has come out and said there is. absolute confidence in this entire. electoral process and that is a judge. which was appointed by his father Ja. Bolsinaro and is very much seen as. probolsaro. So an interesting challenge. and I'm sure it is not going to be the.

end of the story. His supporters also. are not accepting this result as Lula. winning his fourth non-consecutive term. now but it's not the end of the story. I. think we're going to hear a lot more. challenging and a lot more fiery. rhetoric. >> By reelecting a left-wing president, Brazil has, it would seem, bucked a. trend and set itself up as something of. an outlier in Latin America. Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, and others. are all led by right-wing populists, many elected recently, and who are. closely aligned with Donald Trump. And.

the US president has made no secret of. his support for the Balsinaro family. When Jaier Balssonso was jailed for. plotting a coup following the election. in 2022, Mr. Trump labeled the. investigation a witch hunt and announced. sanctions against the Brazilian Supreme. Court judge who led the probe. So, what. does Lula's re-election mean for. Brazil's relationship with Washington? Earlier, I spoke to Daniel Gallas of BBC. Brazil. The way the this relationship. moves forward is tricky because for one. thing, the biggest enemy Lula probably.

has in the US is Marco Rubio and the the. Secretary of State and how he represents. this fight against left-wing agenda in. the in the in the continent. Uh uh the. relation with Trump is a bit more tricky. because Trump said uh last year that he. and Lula had great chemistry together. and he's often praised Lula a lot and. many analyst an analysts think that he. likes Lula because Lula is a winner.

because Lula just the way he managed to. win this election against all odds he. that's the kind of stuff that Trump. likes. And so there's this open question. about you know which Trump are we will. Lula get? Is it the friendly I like. winners Trump or is it the hostile Trump. that wants Jar Bosonado freed from jail. and wants Brazil to pay bigger tariffs. and things like that. The one thing we. do know is that Lula will probably keep. this uh up this stance which he played.

to voters in Brazil of Brazil. sovereignty that he won't accept US. interference that if US raises taxes. they you know Brazil will hit back in. every way it can which is probably very. different from what Flav Bonaro would. do. Flav Bosonaro he said he would deal. with the US more that if the US has. interest in Brazil's critical min. mineral uh resources he'd be willing to. negotiate with us he he signaled he'd be. distancing himself from China so.

completely different message and I think. we can expect just Lula to stick to that. message you know and closer ties with. China as well. >> and what about the impact of this. election result on on the wider region I. mean it doesn't it buck a trend trend. more recently that countries in Latin. America um have been voting in. right-wing leaders. Does this leave. Brazil isolated at all? Well, perhaps it. could leave Brazil isolated, but it. could also offer some sort of guidance. to the left-wing parties because we have.

to think that. if we take away the uh election for the. presidency of Brazil, this was a an. election where the rightwing. uh clearly won in Brazil because they. won most of Congress in both houses. They're the they're the bigger party now. there and they used to be very small. This Bosan Bosanara party they won uh. most of the state governments and the. state assemblies as well. So you could. say that Brazil did turn right and that.

Lula managed to save the the presidency. which is a key thing as well. But you. have a hard time moving ahead with his. policies now that he has this hostile. Congress against him. But what what a. lot of people think is that the way they. managed to turn this election offers a. few clues of how the left-wing parties. could move forward in other countries. So for example, Lula was 2 million votes. behind Flavio Bosonado in the first.

round and now he managed to be 4 million. votes ahead. So he got 10 million people. 10 million more votes this time than. just three weeks ago than he had three. weeks ago. So how did he do it? And the. answer was basically having a massive. aggressive social media campaign which. was led by one channel which is called. the army of Lula and on WhatsApp which. was was organized by one of his. supporters and this army of Lula channel. basically issued missions to their.

subscribers and saying no flavable boss. sonar is saying this so let's counter. the information let's uh let's engage. with this post or But when Lula said. something that they liked, they they. say, "Look, let's let's promote Lula's. message. Let's record videos." And now. your mission is, you know, each voter. has to find try to persuade one voter to. to change his vote. So, you know, all. these massive organized campaigns, they. really had an effect on all of this. And. we also have to say that the government.

of Lula did a lot of things as well. It. banned sports betting. It reduced the. working hours in Brazil from 44 hours a. week to 40 weeks. That was actually. approved in Congress, but it was pushed. by his government. They also offered a. debt relief program for families. They. uh increased income uh cash transfer. programs. So, the government also st had. a big role in all of this. But I think. the message is you know that uh there. are things that can be done in an.

election for for you to overturn this. because for a while there I think many. people thought you know the continent's. turning right and there's nothing anyone. can do about it. And that's all for now. To hear more about any of the stories we. covered today, you can find the audio. version of the Global News podcast. wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd. like to get in touch, our contact. details are below. I'm Pete Ross. Until. next time, goodbye.