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Luiz Inacio Lula da SilvaMARIANA GREIF
Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a run-off election, but the far-right incumbent did not concede defeat on Sunday, raising concerns that he might contest the result.
The Supreme Electoral Court declared Mr. Lula the next President, with 50.9% of votes against 49.1% for Mr. Bolsonaro. The 77-year-old’s inauguration is scheduled for January 1.
It was a stunning comeback for the leftist former President and a punishing blow to Mr. Bolsonaro, the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential race.
“So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognise my victory, and I don’t know if he will call or if he will recognise my victory,” Mr. Lula told tens of thousands of jubilant supporters celebrating his win on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Ave.
In contrast to Mr. Bolsonaro’s silence, congratulations for Mr. Lula poured in from foreign leaders, U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The vote was a rebuke for the fiery far-right populism of Mr. Bolsonaro, who emerged from the back benches of Congress to forge a novel conservative coalition but lost support as Brazil ran up one of the worst death tolls of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Biden congratulated Mr. Lula for winning “free, fair and credible elections”, joining the chorus of compliments from European and Latin American leaders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his congratulatory tweet that he looked “forward to working closely together to further deepen and widen our bilateral relations, as also our cooperation on global issues”.
