Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.

Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.

Lula’s triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump’s demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Because their path to power always involves exploiting good will and benefit of the doubt.

    They’re all cry bullies, they act tough as long as there’s no resistance, but if they don’t win they’ll say anything they think of to change a result or make an excuse.

    The only reason they have any followers is people think they’re strong. So they can never admit they lost, there’s always has to be some bullshit to blame it on.

    If they admit they’re not the majority. There goes most of their followers, because their followers just want strength and to identify as a winner.