Brazil's Lula Secures Fourth Term, Putting Brakes on Right-Wing Wave

[Anchor]

Incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won the presidential runoff election. He has successfully secured a fourth term despite a strong right-wing wave. This also puts the brakes on U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign policy, which aimed to expand influence by turning Latin America to the right.

Reporter Lee Gang has the details.

[Reporter]

The moment incumbent President Lula da Silva's victory was announced.

Supporters poured into the streets to celebrate the victory.

In the presidential runoff that concluded on the morning of October 26, Korean time, President Lula achieved a fourth term, a first in Brazil's history.

With 51 percent of the vote, he defeated right-wing Liberal Party candidate Bolsonaro by a margin of 3 percentage points.

His first message was about Brazil's sovereignty and independence.

[Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva / Brazilian President : It is a choice between defending a free homeland or dying for Brazil. This shows that our country will not tolerate threats from anyone.]

Since the early 2000s, a left-wing wave advocating economic equality, the so-called pink tide, swept across South America.

However, it rapidly receded due to slowing economic growth and security anxieties. Starting from January of last year when U.S. President Donald Trump returned to power, control over South America increased, strengthening the right-wing wave in Latin America known as the blue tide.

Right-wing forces expanded their reach in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, and even won the presidential election in Colombia four months ago, turning the left side of the South American continent blue, which symbolizes the political right.

However, President Lula's victory has created a crack in this continuous trend of right-wing governments coming to power.

It also puts the brakes on Trump's foreign policy, which sought to exert exclusive influence in Latin America.

Right-wing candidate Bolsonaro faced a backlash over his pledge to pardon former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is imprisoned on charges of plotting a coup. He also faced a political backlash after mocking Lula for losing a finger during his days as a factory worker and branding him as corrupt.

[Brazilian Citizen : There is no more dictatorship in Brazil. Let's send the right-wing candidate away to just flatter Trump.]

In addition, concerns over Bolsonaro's market-fundamentalist and austerity fiscal policies influenced voter sentiment.

Bolsonaro's camp declared that it would not accept the election results and announced plans to request the election be nullified.

(Video Editing: Cho Moo-hwan, Design: Taeyoung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.