Having lost the first round of Brazil’s presidential election to far right rival Flávio Bolsonaro, incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spectacularly triumphed in the second. What comes next for Brazil? The Guardian’s Tom Phillips is answering your questions now.
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DapperDon asks: It seems to me that national football team colours have been hijacked in recent South American elections with conservative and rightwing candidates adopting team colours to claim patriotism. Arguably Bolsonaro Snr was one of the first to politicise national pride back in 2018, but it seemed not to have been as much of a factor in this election with Jnr. Are folk growing accustomed/cynical to this ugly, naked attempts at association, or did the left combat this effectively?
Tom: I think the left has been quite clever about reclaiming Brazil’s national shirt from the far-right in recent months. For years leftwing Brazilians shunned the jersey because of its association with Bolsonarism. The problem has been compounded by the association of some of the country’s top footballers, such as Neymar, with the Bolsonaro movement and family. But during this year’s World Cup and election I’ve seen lots of progressive people and politicians wearing it.
There has been a concerted effort to make sure all Brazilians can feel pride in the shirt. At Lula rallies you now see lots of vendors selling yellow shirts with Lula’s name and his election number 13 printed on the back. On social media, Lula supporters have even been using the yellow shirt to get around what they see as the bias in terms of promoting left and rightwing content. By wearing the shirt, they believe they can trick the algorithm into turbocharging leftwing content, because it identifies it as being from the right. Let’s hope the trend continues.
Tom: The optics do indeed look odd. But Bolsonaro is the focus of several serious criminal investigations and his relatives and allies have a long history of skipping the country to avoid justice. His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, left Brazil for the US in early 2025 and has not returned. He would have to serve a four-year sentence for coercion if he returned. Jair Bolsonaro’s former spy chief, Alexandre Ramagem, fled the country through the Amazon last September to avoid having to serve a 16-year sentence for his role in the coup attempt that happened after Lula won the 2022 election. Carla Zambelli, another prominent Bolsonarista, is facing extradition from Italy after fleeing there. Jair Bolsonaro briefly sought shelter in the Hungarian embassy in Brasília, in 2024.
There are unconfirmed reports that Flávio Bolsonaro may have already left the country. federal police are investigating claims that he fled across the border into Argentina and plans to take a private jet to the US. We are trying to find out what is going on and will keep readers posted.
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