Jair Bolsonaro, current ultra-right president, or Luiz Inácio, trade unionist Lula da Silva Lula and former leftist president, one of them will become president of Brazil on Sunday. On 30 October, the second round of the elections to Brazil will take place, since in the first round none of the two 50% limits were exceeded: the Workers' Party of Lula was close, with 48.43% of the votes; the Liberal Party of Bolsonaro, with 43.20%.

These elections needed the return of a “hero.” Lula, who was president between 2003 and 2010, has become a symbol against Bolsonaro and the ultra-conservative right. For a year and a half he was in jail accused of corruption and many have read it as an act against freedom of expression; once this conviction is annulled, Lula becomes even more symbolic. Faced with the impossibility of participating in the 2018 elections, the experts hoped that this year their victory would be remarkable, as they concluded that Bolsonaro won then but that he also did not have much competition.

The result, however, has not been as good as expected for Lula. They expected a difference of between 14 and 16 points between him and Bolsonaro, and it's been less than half, but Lula's result has been the second best in the Workers' Party's history in the first round. Data have shown strong polarization in the country: Lula, in the poorest area of the states, in the south, Bolsonaro, where there are more mining and agricultural territories. Abstention was 21%, similar to the usual data, as voting is mandatory in the country. But Lula has endeavoured to address that gap, and has said that those who voted in favour of abstention in the first round expect them to vote in the second round.

For his part, Bolsonaro has denounced the fraud in the electoral system and, although the experts have denied it, they fear that he is opposed to the results of day 30. Donald Trump, former President of the United States, reminds many of the denunciation, and this is not the first time the two presidents have been compared. “I wouldn’t hire men and women for the same salary. But there are many skilled women.” These words belong to Bolsonaro, president since 2018. The mandate of the far-right president has been very controversial, with the predominance of ultra-conservative and neoliberal policies. Not only in the area of equality between women and men, LGTBIQ+ has positioned itself against people’s rights and in defence of torture.

Exploiting or protecting the Amazon

His mandate has been aggravated by the mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis, with at least 680,000 deaths associated with the coronavirus, and the rapid deforestation of the Amazon. In its programme it proposes the exploitation of Amazonian lands, the promotion of companies and the privatization of nationalized companies. On the other hand, Lula has committed himself to social protection centres, as well as to programs for cancelling citizen debt. Its programme includes raising taxes on the wealthiest and efforts to strengthen actions to protect the Amazon.

In the meantime, concern predominates among citizens. Polls have shown that economy, public health and corruption are the biggest concerns of Brazilians. On the other hand, public education and murder are also a source of concern in the country. Because the situation in the country is not good: The economic recession of 2014 is being overcome, with all the obstacles imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, and poverty and the education crisis have increased. In addition, data on violence are also high: 22.2 people per 100,000 inhabitants were killed last year.