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You could see Lula da Silva’s satisfaction when he appeared in front of his supporters at a hotel in São Paulo on Sunday evening:

Shortly before that, the TSE electoral court had declared the 77-year-old the winner in the battle for the presidency. Now the former union leader will take up his third mandate on January 1. No other politician has achieved that in Brazil. The return of the left-wing president after years of prosecution and imprisonment is one of the country’s most notable political comebacks.

Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva’s voice has gotten a little rougher in the years since his first presidency in 2003, his beard is whiter, but he hasn’t lost any of his rhetorical talent. You saw that on Sunday evening when he outlined a government program for four years in half an hour and radiated a lot of hope. Lula, who ruled Brazil until 2011, has been relieved of his concerns about democracy, which was only regained in his country in 1985.

Marked by blows of fate

The politician, who is considered the leftist icon of Latin America outside Brazil’s borders, has long hesitated to take on this task. After all, it was his sixth candidacy for the highest office in the state. Age, personal fortunes such as the death of his wife Letizia in 2017 and a year and a half in prison until November 2019 for abuse have scarred him. However, the absence of someone with few promising candidates in his workers’ party PT made the candidacy inevitable.

The arrest followed a 12-year prison sentence for corruption and money laundering. But the Supreme Court overturned the verdict due to procedural errors and a judge’s bias. Da Silva regained his political rights.

In fact, corruption flourished in already corrupt Brazilian politics during his tenure, but personal enrichment could never be proven. Nevertheless, Lula has made big names like contractor Marcelo Odebrecht, who won projects for his company through bribes all over Latin America.

The first working class president

The two were friends. Lula has always been a friend of major infrastructure expansion mega projects. Environmental issues, sustainability and gender were not his thing. But Lula 2.0 has at least modernized its election manifesto and today appears to be the savior of democracy and climate protection in Latin America’s largest country.

Lula was Brazil’s first working class president. He was born to a destitute family in Pernambuco in the poor northeast. His parents moved to the industrial metropolis of São Paulo. As a child he cleaned shoes and sold oranges. At the age of 14, after only three years of school, he was hired at the metal factory. He rose to the presidency of the union when he was not yet 20 years old.

In the late 1970s, Lula became nationally known when he led a series of strikes and was imprisoned for it by the military authorities. During this time, the image of the charismatic fighter with outstretched fist, wild beard and radical demands emerges. In 1980 he co-founded the workers’ party PT.