Lula re-elected, Bolsonaro’s son refuses

Sunday evening, São Paulo. Arms raised with his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, Lula, 80, savours the moment in front of supporters dressed in red, then heads to Avenida Paulista: “Democracy always, dictatorship and fascism never again”. Re-elected for a fourth term with 51.78% of valid votes against 48.22% for Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, son of the former far-right president, according to the Superior Electoral Court, he overturns the first round, in which the son had led him, 47% to 45%. Flávio Bolsonaro says it is “impossible” to recognise the result, because of the two extra hours of voting granted by judge Cristiano Zanin, and demands that the election be annulled.

The Amazon in the ballot box

According to the National Institute for Space Research, deforestation in the Amazon fell by 42% between August 2025 and July 2026. Le Grand Continent believes a victory for Bolsonaro’s son would have revived the clearing. In El País América, the journalist Eliane Brum writes of her fear, for democracy, for the forest and for lives, Courrier International reports.

A Congress that did not choose him

Brazil has not swung to the right like Argentina, Chile or Colombia. But the legislative elections of 4 October, three weeks earlier, handed the conservatives a landslide: Lula will govern with a Congress that did not choose him. Asked about the result, Donald Trump offered only a “we are watching”. A president re-elected by a whisker facing a hostile Parliament: four years of arm-wrestling ahead?