> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://redflag.org.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Mass protests defeat the far right in Brazil, but Lula is no way forward
- URL: https://redflag.org.au/article/mass-protests-defeat-the-far-right-in-brazil-but-lula-is-no-way-forward/
- Published: 2026-11-01T23:25:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-02T00:02:52.000Z
- Description: Brazil’s election shows that the far-right’s seemingly unstoppable rise to power can be halted. What stopped it was not the capitulatory reformism of leaders like Lula. It was the power of ordinary people, mobilising and organising in the streets, universities and workplaces.
- Author: Tom Sullivan
- Tags: International

With the winds in Latin America blowing decisively towards the far right over recent years, voters went to the polls in the continent’s most important country, Brazil, in October. The Workers’ Party (PT), led by longtime leader and incumbent president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, lost in the first round, but achieved a remarkable turnaround in the second round. It was the first time a candidate who lost the first round has won the second round.

Lula, as he is popularly known, was running against Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s predecessor. Jair is currently serving a 27-year sentence for an attempted coup after he lost the 2022 election. During his term, he oversaw the deaths of over 700,000 people during the pandemic, allowed corporations to plunder the Amazon, and was a close ally of US president Donald Trump. 

In the first round of voting, Flavio Bolsonaro won 47 percent against Lula’s 45 percent. The right also took control of Congress. The PT’s first-round loss shows how much support the PT has lost among its traditional base. The outgoing Lula administration was committed to a fiscal framework of zero budget deficits, resulting in caps on public spending and wages. It also allowed further oil exploration of the Amazon. During the campaign, Lula gave ground to the right's tough-on-crime platform, indicating his support for lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16.

The PT’s poor performance in the first round makes its turnaround in the second round even more impressive. Over the three weeks, the PT’s vote increased by over ten million, giving the party 52 percent of the vote. Facing criminal allegations of money laundering, Bolsonaro followed in the footsteps of many Latin American dictators and immediately fled to the safe haven of Miami.

The key factor in the sharp jump in the PT vote was the huge rallies that spread across the country between the two rounds of voting. The day after the first round, students at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro held an assembly that turned into a rally, spilling out onto the streets. Social media and WhatsApp groups exploded with calls for demonstrations. On 7 October, the National Union of Students called demonstrations in several major cities that saw tens of thousands come out. 

These initial demonstrations were about mobilising to defeat the far right, defending public education, and fighting to reduce the work week to five days from six, a demand that Lula’s government has resisted. Although backing for the PT’s re-election was present, it received much less emphasis. One slogan was: “No to the father, no to the son.”

By 9 October, even small cities were holding assemblies and demonstrations. In Ponta Grossa, a city of around 350,000, university and high school students held an assembly of over a thousand people, promoted as “students against fascism”. It decided on an action plan that included leafleting and door knocking. Similar scenes played out at universities across the country.

“The first few days after the election were like a frenzy”, said Veronica O’Kelly, a national leader of the socialist group Revolucão Socialista. She continued,

> “WhatsApp groups promoted rallies across the country. Students led demonstrations out of the universities into the streets. Their demands were immediately far beyond anything the PT was offering. This is what kicked off the mass demonstrations that came over the following weeks.” 

On the first weekend after the first round of voting, over one million joined marches in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro under the slogan “The class is in the streets”. Lula was a prominent feature of the rallies, standing on top of a bus in Sao Paolo, surrounded by throngs of people. In other cities, hundreds of thousands joined marches. 

But students remained the driving force. On 14 October, the student union at the University of Brasilia held a demonstration of over 50,000 in the capital under the slogan “Bolsonaro never again, and end the 6x1 now,” referring to the six-day work week.

The fact that the rallies raised major economic demands alongside support for the PT put pressure on Lula not just to offer promises after the second round but to take immediate action. On 14 October, Congress passed a constitutional amendment reducing the work week from six days to five with no loss of salary. This was a monumental victory for the Brazilian working class that the movement imposed on not just the PT but the entire ruling class. The measure passed the Senate 75 to 1, with even Bolsonaro’s party voting for it.

The three weeks between the first and second rounds, therefore, saw a genuine explosion of mass resistance to the far right, sparked and in large part led by students. This is what allowed the PT vote to increase by over ten million over the same period. 

But Lula will return to power after four years of a further drift to the right. His next administration will almost certainly continue this trajectory. He will also govern in a context where the far right is on the march all over Latin America, backed by the Trump White House. 

Another notable point of the election was the strong result for the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSOL). Formed in 2004 as a left-wing breakaway from the PT, the PSOL won just shy of five percent of the vote in the lower house, increasing its number of MPs by two to fourteen.

However, inside the PSOL there is a major debate over its direction. Since the 2022 election, the party has not run its own presidential candidate, instead backing Lula. And several PSOL leaders served in the current PT administration. Left-wing groups inside the PSOL have been highly critical of the leadership's tailing of the PT, instead arguing for independence. The leadership argues that unity with the PT and Lula is necessary to stop the far right. However, the first-round results prove the exact opposite.

Brazil’s election shows that the far-right’s seemingly unstoppable rise to power can be halted. What stopped it was not the capitulatory reformism of leaders like Lula. It was the power of ordinary people, mobilising and organising in the streets, universities and workplaces.