Pedro Sánchez makes Lula's victory his own to launch the message of "comeback"

LondonThere is hope against Trumpism and the global far-right. An 80-year-old man, who will turn 81 this Tuesday, has proven it against all odds. The victory, this Sunday, in the Brazilian presidential elections for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been received by global social democracy and also by liberal democrats as a red-hot iron to hold onto in the face of the ultra-right push radiating from the White House, the MAGA movement, and the social networks at its service.

The main international progressive leaders have come out in force to congratulate Lula on his extraordinary result. One of those who joined in with enthusiasm, and perhaps one of the most interested and in need given current circumstances, is the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. The PSOE leader took advantage of the result to project it onto the Spanish legislative elections on November 29th. "What happened in Brazil will happen in Spain. The comeback of global progressivism has just begun," he wrote on X. The rest of the Spanish left also celebrated the victory with joy.

Beyond whether it will have an effect on the Spanish campaign or not, for Sánchez the image that the left is resisting and blocking the path of the far right is important. This is, in fact, the main discourse with which he intends to renew his mandate at the Moncloa. It also interests him that his rivals are associated with Bolsonaro, even when it comes to questioning the legitimacy of Lula's victory. With Vox it is easy, and in fact the PSOE has enough with that, because it can always resort to the card of linking Santiago Abascal's party with the PP, inevitable partners if they want to manage to add up to a majority.

Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch has taken advantage of the left's victory in Brazil to fuel the far-right narrative, which speaks of possible electoral fraud in Spain on 29-N. "What happened in Brazil will happen in Spain," he said. The theory of possible ballot-stuffing by the PSOE, in fact, is shared by the PP, although it has not yet commented on the elections in Brazil. It contrasts how the popular candidate for the Spanish presidency, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, greeted on Sunday the return of María Corina Machado to Venezuela and that at this hour on Monday he has still not pronounced himself on the result of the Brazilian elections.

Two international sides

In Latin America, the other major progressive government remaining in the region has also joined in the light of Lula. The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, proclaimed from X: "Long live democracy, the people of Brazil have won". Former Colombian President Gustavo Petro interpreted the result as a defeat for fascism, and the Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel highlighted the continuity of the path of sovereignty and social justice pushed by the leader of the Workers' Party. Lula has also been congratulated by the progressive Uruguayan president, Yamandú Orsi, and the former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders celebrated Lula's "extraordinary victory", to whom he attributed the defense of workers and democracy. Fellow Democratic congressman Ro Khanna has asked Donald Trump to respect the result and not try to discredit the Brazilian elections, as is already being requested from the Bolsonarist side.

From Brussels, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of the People's Party, celebrated the victory of Lula ("Of my friend", she said) and of "democracy and multilateralism", and urged the veteran politician to work together for "free and open trade, a rules-based world order, and ambitious climate goals".

For his part, the President of the European Council, António Costa, has defended deepening cooperation with Brazil. In the same vein, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, joined in: "France and Brazil have much to build together. Faced with the great challenges of our time, let us strengthen our strategic partnership and make the friendship between our two countries a reality in the service of a fairer world".

Outside the European continent, another antagonist of Donald Trump, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has opted to expand trade exchanges and environmental cooperation with Brasília, and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has expressed the desire to strengthen the strategic partnership between two countries of the BRICS axis.

The congratulations, however, have not been limited to left-wing or simply democratic leaders. The Peruvian opposition leader, Keiko Fujimori, from the right, has claimed bilateral cooperation and the sustainable development of the shared Amazon. For his part, the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, has highlighted the common challenges of the region, and the Chilean and ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast, an ally of Bolsonaro and an admirer of the policies of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, has spoken with Lula to congratulate him and to defend a shared agenda on economic integration and the fight against organized crime.

Opposing reactions

The opposing reactions have been concentrated within Bolsonaro's circle and among conservative sectors in the United States. Flávio Bolsonaro has not only failed to recognize the defeat but has also announced that he will request the annulment of the results, alleging irregularities due to the Brazilian Supreme Court's decision to extend the voting period by two hours, a measure that his party also requested. Another of the former president's sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, sentenced to house arrest for the 2023 coup attempt of 2023, has released a video in English denouncing, without any evidence, an alleged fraud. In the video, Eduardo Bolsonaro calls for international pressure—in a message directed at Washington—so that the election results are not recognized, arguing that the president's electoral growth would be "statistically impossible." The argument coincides with the one defended by his brother, the loser Flávio Bolsonaro.

For his part, Donald Trump Jr., son of the American president, has also questioned the extension of voting hours and accused the media of maintaining a double standard regarding a procedure that, according to him, would have provoked a very different reaction if it had benefited a conservative government.

Lula, who obtained 51.79% of the votes against the 48.21% of the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the coup-plotting former president Jair Bolsonaro, will thus face a fourth non-consecutive term. The difference in votes between the two candidates was over four million.