Brazil’s presidential runoff election takes place today, pitting far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro against former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT). As the contest comes to its nail-biting conclusion, with Lula’s lead in the polls narrowing and right-wing political rhetoric getting more extreme, it’s worth taking a closer look at the two candidates.

In the aftermath of Bolsonaro’s unexpectedly strong performance in the October 2 general election, almost every newspaper ran an article about the resilience of the right-winger’s candidacy and even the prospect of a “Bolsonarismo-beyond-Bolsonaro”: the possibility that, even in defeat, the leader could be outlived by the reactionary movement that bears his name.

Fewer pieces were written about former president Lula, who most agree is a known quantity at this point. However, as André Pagliarini has convincingly shown, one can understand neither the past nor future of Brazil without also studying the larger-than-life political phenomenon around Lula.