“Brazil needs peace and of unity”, said Lula during a speech in Sao Paulo (Brazil) on Sunday October 30, after his victory against Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election. Elected with 50.9% of the vote, the president-elect promised to work on correcting the record of his predecessor, judged “disastrous” by many specialists.
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The challenges are not lacking in a Brazil with a bleak economy, fractured after a violent campaign and where inequalities have exploded under the mandate of the former far-right president. “I will govern 215 million Brazilians and not just those who voted for me”, said Lula. The mission awaiting the former left-wing president, elected for a third term, promises to be difficult. Franceinfo lists the projects of the new Brazilian president, who will begin his term on January 1, 2023.
Restoring Brazil’s place on the international scene
Lula had made it one of the axes of his campaign. Latin America’s largest country isolated itself diplomatically during Jair Bolsonaro’s tenure. “Today we tell the world that Brazil is back, it is too big to be relegated to this sad role of pariah in the world,” assured Lula during his victory speech. His election was also hailed by many heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron. Gabriel Boric, the recently elected President of Chile tweeted a brief but enthusiastic: “Lula. Joy!”
“By putting Brazil back on the international scene, Lula wants to make investors want to come back to the country”, explains Christophe Ventura, director of research at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris). However, points of dissension could appear, warns Frédéric Louault, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Americas at the Free University of Brussels. “On the question of the war in Ukraine, he has often dismissed Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky back to back, criticizing the position of Westerners”, he recalls. Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated Lula on Monday, saying he wanted to develop with him a “constructive cooperation”.
Reducing the explosion of inequalities
Jair Bolsonaro leaves his successor a sluggish economy. After having largely reduced the state budget, the outgoing president launched numerous support measures for Brazilians, unfunded, at the end of his mandate. “Lula’s first objective will be to stop the steamroller of Bolsonarism which has passed over the public policies put in place over the last three decades”, points out Frédéric Louault. Lula thus pleaded during his victory speech for “an egalitarian Brazil, a Brazil for all, with priority given to those who need it most”.
Above all, the left-wing president will have to find money to finance the social policies promised in his program. “He will have to revive the economy to be able to redistribute when growth is less strong than during his first term”, adds the researcher. Millions of Brazilian men and women have fallen into poverty in recent years, in particular because of the crisis linked to Covid-19. The president-elect has promised to tackle the problem of hunger, while nearly 33.1 million people are food insecure, according to a study published in June by the Brazilian Food Security Research Network.
Slow down deforestation
If the environmental theme was little discussed during the presidential debates, Lula has made it a focus of his campaign. The elected president has thus promised to fight against deforestation of primary forests, which accelerated from the start of Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate, reaching in 2021 its highest level since 2008. “Brazil is ready to resume its leadership in the fight against the climate crisis (…). Brazil and the planet need a living Amazon”he said on Sunday evening.
In particular, Lula’s government has planned to restore resources to organizations monitoring deforestation in the Amazon, which have been greatly weakened by the credit cuts. An encouraging sign, Norway, which had frozen its financial aid against deforestation in the Amazon in Brazil under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, announced on Monday its intention to restart its collaboration with Brasilia.
Bringing together a divided Brazil
He “there are not two Brazils (…) We are one people, one nation”, assured Lula, at the end of a violent campaign which marked the divisions of the population of the country. “It’s going to be particularly difficult, it’s one thing to say it, but in reality society is extremely polarized”, emphasizes Christophe Ventura. Without a majority in the Brazilian Congress, Lula will have to negotiate each of his reforms. “There will be a very virulent parliamentary opposition from the Bolsonarists”predicts Frédéric Louault.
Proof of his desire for reconciliation, the elected president has promised to better represent minorities and women in his next government and to create a new ministry in charge of Indigenous Affairs.
Lula will have a lot to do to restore Brazilians’ confidence in democracy, while Jair Bolsonaro “reduced the transparency of public organizations and government”, explained to franceinfo Graziella Guiotti, professor at the School of Public Policy of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in Brasilia. The outgoing president has not yet spoken on the results, although he had hinted that he might not accept a defeat during the campaign.