Anti-Israel Lula declared winner of Brazilian election

Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and staunch opponent of the State of Israel, was re-elected to another four-year term on Sunday, interrupting a recent right-wing wave across the continent.

The unexpected comeback by the veteran leader, who turns 81 on Tuesday and defied history to win a fourth term after trailing his right-wing opponent, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, in the first round of voting on Oct. 4, is expected to put a damper on relations with the U.S. and keep ties with Israel in a deep freeze.

Lula received 51.8% of the vote, versus 48.2% for Bolsonaro, according to official results published by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, a lead of around 4.4 million votes.

“Either the homeland remains free, or we die for Brazil,” Lula said. “This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard.”

It was the first time since Brazil returned to civilian and democratic rule in 1985 that a presidential candidate who lost the first round of voting came from behind to win the second.

The results were even more surprising because several right-wing candidates who lost in the first round endorsed Bolsonaro, the 45-year-old son of the jailed former president who lost to Lula four years ago.

Turnout was higher on Sunday (80.79%) than in the earlier round (78.92%), the opposite of the norm.

Sunday’s election was marked by an eleventh-hour decision, taken by a justice who previously served as Lula’s lawyer, to extend voting for two hours at the request of both sides.

Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat on Sunday night, calling for the election to be annulled.

“It is impossible to recognize the results,” he said, stone-faced, in a brief speech in Brasilia.

However, Brazilian political analysts said that the scale of the victory and the fact that both sides had asked for an extension made that highly unlikely.

At the same time, Brazil this month elected its most conservative National Congress since returning to democracy four decades ago, suggesting Lula’s fourth term in office will be marked by political turbulence.

Israel had been keen to reset relations with a Brazil led by Bolsonaro, a stalwart friend of the Jewish state.

Anticipating a Bolsonaro victory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month invited the Brazilian senator to visit Jerusalem, and both men expressed a desire to renew close ties between their countries.

Lula recalled his ambassador to Israel in 2024 in the wake of the war against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, and joined the International Court of Justice case against the Jewish state, becoming one of the most vociferous opponents of Israel in Latin America.