Lula Is Working to Revive Brazil’s Democracy Against a Powerful Far-Right Bloc
Since taking office as president, Lula has had to navigate a treacherous path, facing a powerful ultraconservative bloc in Brazil’s national congress. The job of repairing state capacity while avoiding an economic downturn will test his skills to the limit.
Lula da Silva at a press conference in Lisbon, Portugal, April 22, 2023. (Horacio Villalobos / Corbis via Getty Images)
Ever since taking office four months ago, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, more commonly known as Lula, has faced the arduous task of rebuilding the country’s institutions, as well as its international image, following the chaotic Bolsonaro administration.
So far, this challenge has generated a mixed bag of successes and failures, with a number of stumbles that have tested Lula’s reputation as a political “miracle worker.” With issues ranging from a conservative-dominated Congress to an antagonistic central bank, the seventy-seven-year-old former union leader is finding governing a harder task than ever as he sets about his third term as president.
Good Old Days
Lula campaigned mostly on the idea of a return to more prosperous days for Brazil — particularly those of his previous administration. Having left office in 2010 with record-high approval ratings, Lula now relied on voters remembering the 2000s, when Brazil had a strong economy and a rapidly growing middle class that was partly a product of his government’s social policies, as well as favorable international relations with both China and the United States.
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