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Brasilia, Brazil | Xinhua | After winning the second round of voting on Sunday, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party is expected to remodel the largest Latin American economy during the four-year presidential term starting from Jan. 1, 2023.
Analysts believe that the victory of Lula, who represents the left-wing forces, indicates that the new government will tilt towards the middle and lower classes in terms of economic and social policies, and will also change the conservative position of current President Jair Bolsonaro in diplomacy.
It was a razor-thin margin victory. Results announced by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court showed that Lula and Bolsonaro won 50.9 percent and 49.1 percent of the vote respectively during the unprecedentedly bitter electoral contest.
While Brazil is currently experiencing political polarization and public opinion splits, which is reflected in the record 1.8-percentage-point margin of votes between the two presidential candidates, the “Return of Lula” has made many Brazilians more hopeful about the country’s development and their own destiny.
As many governance problems have accumulated in Bolsonaro’s tenure since 2019, Lula’s campaign ideas are well-timed and problem-oriented, an important factor behind his final victory, according to most Brazilian media and political observers.
The performance of Bolsonaro’s government has been lackluster for a long time since he took office in January 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic was once out of control in Brazil, which ranked second across the world in terms of pandemic-induced deaths; the inflation rate in 2021 reached 10.06 percent, the highest annual growth rate in 6 years; and the average unemployment rate in 2020 was 13.5 percent, the highest since 2012. The silver lining is the economy has started to show a positive trend.
Lula, who served as President of Brazil for two consecutive terms since 2003, has rich experience in national governance.
During the campaign, he put forward a series of targeted propositions and has won wide public recognition, especially among the middle and lower classes, who played an important role in helping Lula win.
Bolsonaro was also criticized for failing to maintain good diplomatic relations with some important countries.
Lula is still Brazil’s most influential politician at the international level, said Zhou Zhiwei, executive director of the Center for Brazilian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As soon as the election results were announced, Lula was greeted with congratulations from U.S. President Joe Biden and many Latin American heads of state.
Domestic public opinion believes that the future Lula government will be a pragmatic and moderate left-wing one centered on people’s livelihood. The main goal of the new government is to unite most parties and the people to remodel Brazil.
The extremely narrow margin between the votes won by the two presidential candidates revealed the political polarization and split of public opinion in Brazil in recent years. Brazilian society is concerned that potential political and social unrest may continue to plague the country for a long time. In response, Lula advocated the establishment of a broad coalition to unite the “deeply divided” country.
On people’s livelihood, Lula is expected to introduce policies that benefit the middle and lower classes, focusing on solving the problems of food, clothing, health, education and employment, attaching great importance to social and public affairs, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, and promoting social equality.
In terms of economic policy, Lula believes that the top priority is to ease inflation, improve the business environment, and achieve economic recovery as soon as possible. He also places high emphasis on “re-industrialization” and hopes that Brazil will realize the transformation to a digital green economy.
While Lula criticized the neoliberal economic line on various occasions before the elections, analysts said in light of his tolerance of specific practices of the neoliberal economy and market competition during his past tenure, he is likely to continue with the practice.
Regarding foreign policy, Lula aims to create a stable and favorable external environment for Brazil’s highly export-oriented economy. He may change the conservative position of the Bolsonaro government, strengthen regional cooperation mechanisms in Latin America, deepen cooperation with BRICS countries, and help establish a new global governance model.
Lula has recently voiced hope of visiting China again. During his multiple visits to China, Lula witnessed the rapid development of China, and watched China’s great achievements in rejuvenating the country. China-Brazil relations are expected to be further improved in the future, said experts. ■
