The 2026 elections in Brazil played out amid an widespread assumption repeated around the world: that the country was polarized and that would inform the vote.
But the word “polarization” implies symmetry – and symmetry is something that never existed in the contest between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. On one side, a moderate center-left politician with a center-right running mate, Geraldo Alckmin. On the other, a representative of the radical right and a member of an international movement that critics say threatens democracies around the world.
