Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva with Fernando Haddad and Geraldo Alckmin, PT candidates for São Paolo governor and vice president, respectively / credit: Richard Matoušek

Bolsonaro and Lula Head to Second-Round Election Amid Brazil’s Contradictions

Some Brazilians’ desire to climb class rungs has helped win votes for incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and his Liberal Party (PL) colleagues at the local and legislative levels of government. This, despite an appetite for progressive politics after four years of the “underpinnings and trappings of fascist rule” as well as hundreds of thousands of avoidable COVID-19 deaths. Richard Matoušek reports from São Paolo on what's next as the second-round presidential election looms in Brazil.

Sonia Guajajara (third from left), an Indigenous rights campaigner and candidate who supports the presidential campaign of the Workers' Party's Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva. Here, she appears with other feminist campaigners at a left-wing rally in São Paolo the day after two Socialist and Liberty Party (PSOL) candidates, Boulos and Ediane Maria, were threatened with a gun / credit: Richard Matoūsek

Brazilians Head to Polls with Fear of Bolsonaro Coup and Possibility of Lula Win Bolstering Left-Wing Latin American Politics

With Brazil being the fifth-largest country by area, along with the seventh-largest population and economy, the outcome of the October 2 first-round presidential election could not only significantly alter the lives of Brazilians, but impact regional politics that have recently swung left, as well as the health of the planet. Richard Matoušek reports from São Paolo.