Brazil’s Lula says only he can stop rise of fascism under Bolsonaro’s son

O presidente brasileiro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, liderou um grande comício nas ruas do Rio de Janeiro dois dias antes da eleição. Fotografia: António Lacerda/EPA.

Photograph: António Lacerda/EPALuiz Inácio Lula da SilvaBrazil’s Lula says only he can stop rise of fascism under Bolsonaro’s son President leads huge rally in Rio before election on Sunday seen as most important for decades.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has claimed he is the only thing standing in the way of far-right “fascists” reclaiming power, as he led a huge rally through the streets of Rio ahead of Sunday’s crunch election.

Falando na véspera da demonstração, o de 80 anos de esquerda disse que havia decidido buscar um histórico quarto mandato porque acreditava que apenas ele poderia impedir a família de seu rival de direita, Flávio Bolsonaro, voltar ao governo.

View image in fullscreenLula led a campaign march through central Rio de Janeiro, travelling from Candelária toward Cinelândia. Photograph: Mariana Greif/JNA/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockHours later, Lula flew to Rio, staging what his team called a “victory march” between two highly symbolic downtown locations that played an important role in Brazil’s fight for democracy during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Lula, who was among those who spoke at that historic demo when he was an up-and-coming politician in his 30s, added: “Either we consolidate democracy, or we will lose it.”.

From Candelária, a sea of red-clad Lula supporters marched a mile south towards Cinelândia, the scene of an equally well-known pro-democracy protest in 1968 called the March of the Hundred Thousand.

View image in fullscreenLula, who is seeking re-election, used the the march to mobilise supporters two days before voters head to the polls on 4 October 2026. Photograph: Mariana Greif/JNA/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock“No gringo is going to lay a finger on Brazil’s things,” vowed Lula, in an indirect reference to claims Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to sway the vote in Bolsonaro’s favour with a campaign of economic and diplomatic pressure.

A decisão de realizar o comício de sexta-feira entre dois lugares tão politicamente carregados refletiu como a eleição deste ano reacendeu temores renovados sobre o futuro da maior democracia da América Latina.

Pesquisas de pré‑eleição sugerem que Lula tem apenas uma ligeira vantagem sobre seu adversário, cujo pai, o ex‑presidente Jair Bolsonaro, está cumprindo uma sentença de 27 anos por conspiração de golpe fracassado depois que Lula o derrotou nas eleições de 2022.

View image in fullscreenTwo Lula supporters. Photograph: António Lacerda/EPAMany Brazilian democrats fear that if 45-year-old Bolsonaro wins this year’s election, he will move quickly to free his father and his fellow coup-plotters from jail – and then set about dismantling and co-opting the country’s democratic institutions, such as the supreme court.

Freixo warned: “We spent 21 years living under a really harsh dictatorship. We fought so hard to attain our democratic institutions. And a victory for the Bolsonaro family – a family that always.

openly defended the dictatorship and tried to stage a coup … would spell the end for our democratic process and institutions.”.

Ver imagem em tela cheia Apoiadores do presidente brasileiro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, no maior protesto de esquerda do Rio em anos. Fotografia: Pilar Olivares/Reuters Valmir Aleixo, professor de história de 55 anos que foi um dos milhares de pessoas que se juntaram à demonstração pró‑Lula de sexta‑feira, disse: “Esta é [uma escolha] entre democracia e a selvageria do fascismo de extrema‑direita.”.

This is perhaps the most important election since the return of democracy in the 80s.”.

Noni Ostrower, 74, came to what was Rio’s largest leftwing protest in years carrying a homemade banner that read: “Democracy Is Valuable”.

During the campaign, Flávio Bolsonaro has vowed to pardon his 71-year-old father if elected, with some speculating Jair Bolsonaro could even become a minister. His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a radical former congressman with ties to Trump’s Maga movement, reputedly hopes to become foreign minister.

Flávio Bolsonaro has announced plans to appoint five firmly conservative supreme court judges.

Luiz Eduardo Soares, renomado antropólogo e escritor, afirmou que temia o que poderia acontecer caso o clã Bolsonaro conseguisse recuperar o poder.

Diogo Nogueira, a famous samba singer who came to the rally wearing his trademark panama hat, said: “We need to win in the first round so we don’t allow this type of people to get back into government.

If they ​do get back in, it won’t just be a problem for four years, but for 10 or 20.”.

Pesquisas indicam que a eleição provavelmente seguirá para uma segunda volta entre Lula e Bolsonaro em 25 de outubro, com Lula esperado para garantir cerca de 45% dos votos no domingo e Bolsonaro 40%, segundo o pesquisador Datafolha.

But at Friday’s rally Lula claimed he could pull off a shock first-round win by claiming more than 50% of the vote.

In an online broadcast, Bolsonaro insisted his campaign would prevail. “Brazil is a few hours from deciding its future … for the next 30, 40, 50 years. It’s the end of an era.