Not for political reasons, but because those issues are linked and the outcome had potential to confirm my points. 

Unfortunately I must report it's illustrating them, so I decided to keep the title.

In case you missed the news and the (largely critical) reactions in the international press and social media, the presidential runoff was tumultuous. Today my country is even more divided and confused than before.

There's something more sinister behind the erosion of stability in Brazil than the elections, however, as I'll show in a moment. For now, here's a summary of last week's events:

Conservative runner and senator Flavio Bolsonaro – son of former president Jair Bolsonaro – won the first round by 2,7 million votes over leftist incumbent Lula. Right-wing parties swept Congress and elected fifteen governors from a total of twenty-seven states – six by Bolsonaro's PL party alone.

Brazilian press called the 2026 general election a conservative tsunami. All polls indicated a win, potentially by even bigger margins as Flavio gathered support from three eliminated right-leaning candidates. The left was despondent.

Then on Sunday 25 Lula took the runoff and won his fourth mandate by 4,4 million votes, an astonishing recovery by all measures. I had the impression the president himself seemed surprised as he watched the count flip into his favor.

Though no proof of fraud has surfaced, the whole story of how Lula and his acolytes turned an almost certain defeat into a massive win is marred by the meddling of the Supreme Court, the wavering and neglect of the Electoral Tribunal, and a campaign based on lavish spending of public money, populism, lies, manipulation, and fear-stoking.