Lula’s Unlikely Return: From Peanut Seller to Brazil’s President Again
In three weeks Lula turned a first‑round loss into a historic re‑election, echoing a life that began in poverty and trade‑union battles.
Even a veteran politician can surprise the electorate. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva managed, within three weeks, to overturn a first‑round defeat and secure a second term as Brazil’s president.
The 80‑year‑old’s latest triumph follows three unsuccessful bids before his first victory in 2002, which ushered in Brazil’s first left‑leaning administration in almost half a century.
Born to a poor, illiterate peasant family, Lula sold peanuts and shined shoes as a child, learning to read only at age ten. He later trained as a metalworker in an industrial city near São Paulo, where a 1960s accident cost him the little finger of his left hand.
Although politics was not his initial ambition, he threw himself into trade‑union activism, becoming leader of the 100,000‑strong Metalworkers’ Union in 1975. He reshaped Brazilian unionism, turning previously government‑friendly groups into an independent force.
In 1980, Lula helped assemble trade unionists, intellectuals, Trotskyites and Church activists to found the Workers’ Party (PT), Brazil’s first major socialist party. The PT later shifted from revolutionary rhetoric to a pragmatic, social‑democratic platform.
When he first took office in 2003, Lula promised sweeping political and economic reforms, pledging to eradicate hunger and foster a self‑confident, outward‑looking nation.
His 2002 victory broke a long right‑wing streak in Latin America, contrasting with the recent electoral success of leaders whose policies echo those of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Among his early international contacts, Lula met Polish trade‑unionist Lech Walesa in Rome in 1981, a meeting that foreshadowed his global profile.
Now, with a second term secured, Lula faces the daunting task of uniting a divided Brazil, a challenge that will test the limits of his decades‑long political experience.
