PRESS REVIEW – Monday, October 26: Brazilian and international papers react to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's presidential election victory. Next: The New York Times warns that the war in Iran is entering a dangerous new phase. Also: cocaine consumption and cocaine-related crimes are surging across Britain. Finally, it turns out that wrapping children in cotton wool isn't the best parenting strategy.
Brazilian papers are reacting to Lula's tight re-election. "Following his victory, Lula says he will govern for all 215 million Brazilians," reports O Globo, explaining that it's a promise of reconciliation after a campaign that revealed a deeply divided country. In another article, the Rio-based paper reports a massive mobilisation in favour of Lula for the second round. The incumbent president secured more than 10 million additional votes compared with the first round. There was a fall in abstentions, and the number of blank and spoilt ballots reached their lowest levels ever recorded. Folha de São Paulo reports that after criticism, Lula is promising to "change" his way of governing. According to the newspaper, his re-election "confirms the status of the Workers' Party leader as Brazil's greatest popular leader of this century". But the paper says it is important "that arrogance does not prevent him from acknowledging the mistakes that nearly cost him the victory" – for example, the fact that "he resorted to a flagrant misuse of the state apparatus", according to the paper.
