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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won re-election as Brazil’s president, reversing a first-round defeat within three weeks. It is another remarkable turn in a political career that included three unsuccessful presidential campaigns before his first victory in 2002, according to “BBC World”.
Lula, now 80, became Brazil’s first left-wing president in nearly half a century when he took office in 2003. His latest victory comes as right-wing leaders have won elections elsewhere in Latin America with policies that echo those of US President Donald Trump.
From poverty to trade union leadership
Lula was born into a poor family of illiterate peasants. As a child, he sold peanuts and worked as a shoe-shine boy, and did not learn to read until he was 10.
He later trained as a metalworker and found a job in an industrial city near São Paulo. In an accident in the 1960s, he lost the little finger of his left hand.
Although he was initially uninterested in politics, Lula became active in trade unions. Elected in 1975 to lead the 100,000-member Metalworkers’ Union, he helped turn Brazil’s largely government-friendly unions into an independent movement.
In 1980, he helped establish the Workers’ Party (PT), bringing together trade unionists, intellectuals, Trotskyists and church activists. The party later moved from a revolutionary effort to change Brazil’s power structure towards a more pragmatic social democratic platform.
Lula promised major political and economic reforms, pledging to eradicate hunger and build a confident, caring and outward-looking country. During his presidency, billions of dollars went to social programmes, and he raised the minimum wage by more than inflation and expanded state support for poor families through the Bolsa Familia grant programme.
The programme helped about 44 million people and strengthened Lula’s backing among poorer Brazilians. Some commentators, however, argued that it did not tackle underlying causes of poverty, including limited access to education.
After two terms, from January 2003 to December 2010, Lula left office with exceptionally high approval ratings for a departing Latin American leader. Brazil’s international profile had risen and the country had experienced its longest period of economic growth in three decades.
Unable to seek a third consecutive term, he left office and was later diagnosed with throat cancer. He shaved his trademark beard during treatment, and doctors declared him cured in 2012.
Jail, return to office and foreign policy
Economic growth later gave way to recession, while a major corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash shook Brazil’s political establishment. Lula was convicted of corruption in July 2017 and sentenced to more than nine years in prison for accepting a beachside flat as a bribe from engineering company OAS. An appeal increased that sentence to 12 years.
He also received a 12-year-and-11-month sentence for corruption and money laundering, in a case involving bribes from two construction and engineering companies used to fund improvements to a country house used by him and his family. Lula maintained his innocence and said the accusations were politically motivated.
He was released in 2019 after serving just over 18 months. Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that his imprisonment had been illegal because it began before all appeals had been exhausted. The convictions were annulled in 2021, allowing him to run in 2022, when he defeated right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula returned to office in 2023 and said it would be his final term. The PT endorsed him as its candidate again this year, despite his turning 81 on Tuesday. Even supporters of the party acknowledge that his first two terms brought greater achievements than his most recent four years in office.
Before the 2022 election, supporters called Lula the “saviour of the Amazon” and praised his commitment to protecting the rainforest. Some environmentalists have since criticised his support for exploratory offshore oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon. Lula says he remains committed to phasing out fossil fuels over time and argues that oil revenues can help fund Brazil’s transition to clean energy.
His government has also cited falling deforestation in the Amazon as evidence that its policies are working. Satellite data indicates that the area deforested in the first half of 2026 fell to its lowest level in a decade.
Lula’s third term has coincided with Trump’s return to the White House. The two leaders have publicly disagreed, and Lula told the BBC in September 2025 that he had no relationship with Trump.
In July that year, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, citing the coup trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro as a trigger. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence, and Lula defeated his son Flávio in Sunday’s run-off. Lula accused Trump of foreign interference and said “he’s not emperor of the world”.
Relations improved after a meeting at the White House in May this year, when the leaders exchanged public praise. Trump called Lula “dynamic”, and Lula said he left the meeting “very satisfied”. In July this year, the United States imposed 25% tariffs on most goods from Brazil.
The two governments continue to disagree on issues including crime, and Lula has acknowledged that they are particularly far apart on trade. Responding to Trump’s “Donroe doctrine”, which asserts that US dominance in the Western Hemisphere should not be challenged, Lula has said: “Brazil does not fit into anyone’s backyard.”
Lula has also criticised the veto power held by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. He argues that it favours the countries that won the Second World War and excludes nations representing billions of people, including Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, as well as African countries.
Brazil is an active member of the Brics grouping, alongside Russia, India, China and South Africa. Lula defends Brazil’s continuing ties with Russia and China, describing Brics as an emerging counterweight to the West. He has also defended continued purchases of Russian oil while Russia wages war in Ukraine.
