Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.

Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.

Lula’s triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump’s demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    You Americans better fucking vote like the Brazilians. Congrats Lula and carry on exporting and filling the massive holes the MAGA fucknuts opened for you.

    • FirmDistribution@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Unfortunately the majority of deputies and senators are from Bolsonaro’s party. Lula’s win was a huge victory, but we still have a lot to fight for here in Brazil.

      The good thing is that Lula’s party learned how to comunicate through social media, this helped him TREMENDOUSLY in his victory.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      You Americans better fucking vote like the Brazilians.

      Brazilian voting is mandatory.

      And their mandatory voting system has routinely produced far right governments.

      • Richard@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        It isn’t really mandatory in practice. If you don’t vote you have to either justify it or pay a fine.

        The fine is less than 3 dollars currently. Not a lot for an American, not a lot for a Brazilian. It does vary, but doesn’t go into the double digits.

        Being outside your designed voting place is a valid justification, being sick is a valid justification - the system really isn’t so strict.

        Would say it’s symbolically mandatory