Brazil election: Bolsonaro, Trump of Tropics, not conceding Lula win
“Starting [Monday] I need to know how we’re going to govern this country,” Lula told supporters late Sunday. “I need to know if the president we defeated will let there be a transition.” He’s set to take office in January.
To many here, Bolsonaro’s delay is little surprise. The president, his sons and supporters have for months laid the groundwork to contest a loss with unsupported allegations of electoral fraud. Bolsonaro summoned foreign diplomats in July to cast doubt on electronic voting, and claimed last week that national law had been violated because radio stations gave more time during the campaign to Lula.
Election authorities dismissed all those claims as fictitious, and called Sunday’s election secure and valid. If anything, irregular checkpoints set up by police with ties to Bolsonaro in territory loyal to Lula on Sunday appeared to delay voters from getting to the polls.
Having followed much of the Trump playbook during his rise to power and in office, analysts say, Bolsonaro could do the same in defeat: refuse to concede, declare Lula’s presidency illegitimate and use his hardcore base to play power broker while preparing for the next election.
“This is the Trump model,” said Marcos Nobre, a political analyst and author. “That’s to say, the one who won the election fair and square is illegitimate. Bolsonaro will seek to weaken Lula in every way.”
His loss comes as the specter of criminal investigations hangs over him and his family.
Even as Bolsonaro resisted acknowledging the result, the world embraced it. It took Bolonsaro months to acknowledge President Biden’s 2000 victory — and seemed to question his legitimacy as recently as June. “I will not discuss the sovereignty of another country,” Bolsonaro told journalists. “But Trump was doing really well.”
Biden quickly threw Washington’s backing to Lula’s corner, congratulating the 77-year-old icon of the left shortly after his victory. According to the Brazilian press, the U.S. president planned to call Lula on Monday. Other leaders followed suit. Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández is set to meet with Lula on Monday in Brazil.
Lula’s “victory opens a new era for the history of Latin America. A time of hope and future that begins today,” Fernández said on Twitter. “Here you have a partner to work and dream big with for the well-being of…
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