Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump, won a historic fourth term on Sunday after defeating his main rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
The 80-year-old first ran for president in 1989 but had to wait until 2002 to taste victory, followed by another win in 2006, according to publicly available information. The veteran politician was re-elected in 2022 for his third term. Lula was jailed in 2018 following corruption convictions that were later annulled, while his son now faces separate graft allegations. Flávio’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for plotting to overturn the 2022 presidential election, which Lula da Silva won. In February this year, India and Brazil agreed to double bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2030 and signed agreements on cooperation in critical minerals and the steel supply chain.
Flávio himself has faced questions over his efforts to secure financing for a film about his father from a banker at the centre of a major fraud scandal, according to The Wall Street Journal. In July last year, Lula reacted to Trump’s remark that “BRICS is anti-American” by saying that the world “doesn’t need an emperor”, after the US President threatened new tariffs on member nations. “This is a set of countries that wants to find another way of organising the world from the economic perspective,” Lula said of the bloc, adding, “I think that’s why the BRICS are making people uncomfortable. Our central banks have to discuss it with central banks from other countries,” he had said. In a post on X, he said, “Heartiest congratulations to my dear friend, President Lula, on his remarkable re-election victory.
The Lula administration has found itself at odds with Washington over tariffs, trade and Brazil’s active participation in the BRICS bloc. “The world needs to find a way that our trade relations don’t have to pass through the dollar. Obviously, we have to be responsible about doing that carefully. I look forward to working closely with him to further deepen and expand the multifaceted India-Brazil Strategic Partnership. Talks between the two leaders focused on strengthening multilateralism in an era of turbulence and uncertainty.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated Lula on his historic fourth term.
