In what was one of the closest elections in Brazilian history, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth presidential term.
Having lost the first round of voting at 47 to 45% in his opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro's favor, a contested runoff on October 25th resulted in Lula stunningly securing his fourth term as Brazil's leader by securing 51.8% of the vote, keeping Brazil left and signaling that the region would not fall victim to a renewed wave of right-wing leadership so easily.
Pre-election polls had favored Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an aspiring dictator who sought to bring back military rule. Flavio Bolsonaro contested the election results, refusing to conceded despite his own party accepting the results, but has since fled to Miami, where political forces more amenable to a defeated fascist hold power.
Why this news matters for all of us
Lula's win is a rebuke of a broader regional trend wherein fascist, right-wing forces such as Trump-favorite Javier Milei have been re-establishing power.
It's not a small victory: Latin America's largest country has no only stopped the CIA and Trump-admin backed encroachment into the region's political systems (which the empire has been recently obsessed with in order to codify its global 'sphere of influence' against China and Russia), but its done so because of the popular energy, organizing, and resistance behind Lula.
Thousands marched in favor of Lula's runoff election campaign in the leadup to the final round of voting, holding signs that read "Never again Bolsonaro." All of this was in spite of Western imperial efforts to ensure Bolsonaro's win and cripple Lula's government: Trump's 40% tariffs last year on Brazilian imports cited unfair trade practices, but were yet another transparent lie meant to apply economic pressure on Lula's government in order to elect Bolsonaro.
Brazil's attorney general also called out the threat of U.S. election meddling after Trump plans to award millions to right-wing groups were revealed ahead of the election.
Recent research also found that U.S. mega tech firm Meta was 'actively boosting' Bolsonaro and suppressing positive mention of Lula's campaign, just the latest example of how tech oligarchs (read: the latest permutation of the capitalist class) prefer and empower fascists to progressives seeking to actually serve their own people.
Lula's progressive and often young supporters responded to foreign meddling with galvanization, demonstrating militantly and getting the vote out to hand Lula his incredible win, denying Trump another powerful ally in the region.
Lula's win is also a tremendous boon for environmentalists who were facing the devastation of millions of more acres of the Amazon rainforest had Bolsonaro won. One analysis has shown that Lula's presidency has saved at least 20,000 square kilometers of Brazilian Amazon since 2022.
Lula's relection has already resulted in a $500 million pledge this past Monday from various nations in the Netherlands to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a fund launched at last year's U.N. climate summit; the prospective funding had been put on hold pending election results, with fears that Bolsonaro's victory would have derailed the TFFF.
Wherever you are, you must be involved in local elections.
Refusing to participate in elections is a form of fatalism that has only harmed progressive electoral base-building and action across the West.
Progressives must continue to fight for better candidates who more closely align with their values, but should never do so naively: bourgeois elections are ultimately limited in their potential impacts within a capitalist system, yes, but it remains a political tool and process that cannot be simply abandoned and yielded to the right.
Taking the environment as just one example, the Environmental Voter Project has found that 3.4 million environmentalists are unlikely to vote in 2026; were that to change, right-wing politicians who refuse to even acknowledge the climate crisis could be kept out of power. In Trump's case, had he been stopped from re-election, that could have meant that the U.S. Forest Service was never gutted.
Moreover, even if neither candidate is exciting to you, recognize that in the U.S., election ballots often include provisions for other important candidates or even referendums on local issues of tremendous importance, from the preservation of forest preserves to school district funding. In short, don't abandon your vote to ancient fascists who don't care if their insane beliefs bring about the end of human civilization.
No, voting is not the end-all-be-all of political engagement, and indeed, the Left desperately needs to organize carefully around direct demonstration, unionization, and other forms of civic action to enact the real change it needs. But voting is not worth discarding, either, and never was.