Lula wants to purge Brazil of Jair Bolsonaro’s influence
He faces resistance from evangelicals, gun owners and big tech
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new left-wing president, has a tricky job ahead of him. The country is more polarised than at any time since its return to democracy in 1985. In January supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, his right-wing populist predecessor, stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in Brasília, the capital. They did so to try to overturn the election result, in which Lula (as he is known) won by just 1.8 percentage points. Fully 39% of those polled still think that the election was rigged; younger Brazilians are particularly prone to support the former president. The parallels with the United States are uncanny. But Lula wants to ensure that, unlike Mr Bolsonaro’s idol Donald Trump, his predecessor cannot make a comeback.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “A power struggle”
From the May 27th 2023 edition
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