The remarkable return of the leftwing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for a third term as Brazil’s president is not just good for his country. His victory over the incumbent rightwing extremist, Jair Bolsonaro, is also good for the world. Since Mr Bolsonaro took office in 2019, forest fires and deforestation soared in the Amazon, with the federal government turning a blind eye to illegal logging, mining, cattle-grazing and land-grabbing. Brazil’s rainforest went from a carbon sink to a carbon source. If allowed to continue, the damage to the world’s lungs would have been irreversible – with disastrous effects on global weather systems and food security.
Lula, as he is universally known, pledged to reverse his predecessor’s policies that have worsened the climate emergency. The world will breathe more easily as a result. But Mr Bolsonaro only narrowly lost the election. He has, at the time of writing, still refused to concede his defeat. Mr Bolsonaro, who praised dictatorship and torture, may never accept the people’s will. But those who have supported him – from evangelists to political allies – have recognised that the game is up. His reluctance to go quietly may be because he fears ending up behind bars. Presidential immunity and an obliging attorney general have helped shelter Mr Bolsonaro and his politician sons from investigations into longstanding suspicions of embezzlement and corruption. For Mr Bolsonaro, that shield disappears in January.
