Praised and criticized – this is Lula da Silva

 

Helena Nordenberg/TT

Publicerad 13.00

         

         Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is hailed like a savior. But behind the halo lies a shrewd           political gambler. Photo: Andre Penner/AP/TT

He has been called the savior of democracy and is celebrated by the environmental movement. On the other hand, Lula da Silva is dogged by corruption allegations and criticized for pushing for oil drilling. Many challenges lie ahead for the newly elected president, who unexpectedly defeated Flávio Bolsonaro in the election.

“Many votes were cast against Bolsonaro rather than for Lula,” says Professor Andrés Rivarola.

That a poor son of a farm laborer from Brazil’s interior would one day hold the country’s highest office seemed unlikely. Yet, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—who went from shoe shiner to metalworker and labor union leader—made it all the way to the very top.

For a long time, Lula trailed in the opinion polls ahead of the presidential election in October. When the 81-year-old and his Workers’ Party (PT) unexpectedly defeated the right-wing populist Flávio Bolsonaro—son of former president Jair Bolsonaro—many saw it as a victory for democracy.

“Lula is the Rolling Stones of the political world. He has shown incredible energy, but the fact is, he isn’t getting any younger. And governing a massive country like Brazil is no easy task. The question is how long he can keep going,” says Andrés Rivarola, a professor of Latin American Studies at Stockholm University.

Lula da Silva is not without controversy. He has served time in prison for his involvement in one of Brazil’s largest corruption scandals, "Operation Car Wash," which began to unravel in 2014. A number of business leaders and high-ranking political figures were accused and convicted. In 2017, Lula was sentenced to nearly ten years in prison for money laundering, corruption, and accepting a beachfront apartment as a bribe from one of the country’s construction giants in exchange for lucrative contracts. He has consistently maintained that the accusations against him were politically motivated. In 2019, the Supreme Court ordered his release pending the resolution of all appeals. A couple of years later, it was determined that the presiding judge had been biased, and the trial was declared void. However, Lula does not enjoy the trust of all voters when it comes to his campaign promise to combat corruption.

José Tainan, a 36-year-old kitchen worker in Rio de Janeiro, cannot recall the last time he went to the polls—though he believes it was in the early 2000s, when he voted for Lula. Corruption led him to stop participating in elections.

"There are no good options. None of them speak to me. I’d rather explain why I didn’t vote," he tells the AP.

New scandal

Furthermore, during the election campaign, a new scandal erupted: Alexandre de Moraes—one of the judges in the case that led to the conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro—allegedly had contact with a banker accused of corruption. According to Rivarola, many voters would have cast a blank ballot if the issue had been solely about corruption; however, Lula gained votes on the question of democracy.

“Many votes were cast against Bolsonaro rather than for Lula,” says Andrés Rivarola.

Another major challenge for Lula lies within the Brazilian parliament, where he must succeed in assembling a coalition of several other parties—some of which are former opponents of Lula’s Workers’ Party.

“The primary challenge he will face concerns his relationship with Congress. Congress will make reaching agreements even more difficult,” writes Glauco Peres da Silva, a professor of political science at the University of São Paulo, in an email response to TT.

It is a motley collection of different parties and political agendas that must be brought into alignment, but Lula is a “master” at handling precisely such situations, according to Andrés Rivarola.

“If there is anyone capable of maneuvering through a complex political landscape, it is Lula.”

Praised and criticized

Another area where Lula is both praised and criticized is environmental and climate policy. Since taking over from Jair Bolsonaro in 2023, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has decreased, and the country’s environmental institutions have been strengthened. At the same time, however, Lula da Silva supports oil drilling in the country, arguing that it is necessary for national prosperity. For instance, he pushed for the state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to be granted permission to explore for oil in a deep-sea area—home to sensitive coral reefs and marine ecosystems—near the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Amapá.

“This is our country’s passport to the future,” Lula da Silva remarked during a visit to the site.

Yet, allowing oil drilling was not part of his election platform, notes Andrés Rivarola.

“In this respect, Brazil actually resembles our neighbor Norway—a country that speaks passionately about climate policy and electric vehicles, but which, as we all know, relies on its oil.”

Facts

About Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

The President of Brazil was born on October 27, 1945, as Luiz Inácio da Silva, to poor farm laborers in Caetés, in the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil. He was given the nickname “Lula” early on—a common abbreviation for the name Luiz in Brazil, which also happens to mean “squid.”

He worked his way up, and as a metalworker, he became involved in the trade union movement. In the 1970s, while Brazil was still under a military dictatorship, Lula organized strikes—actions for which he was imprisoned.

During his time working in the industrial sector, he was involved in an accident that resulted in the loss of his left little finger. He became president for the first time in 2003 and has held the office on several occasions. In 2026, he secured his fourth term.