Thousands March Against Far Right in Brazil Ahead of Runoff Election

Days after elections in which right-wing Brazilian candidates won a significant number of seats and as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva headed to a runoff with Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, students on Wednesday marched through Rio de Janeiro in support of the progressive Lula—and expressed fear over the growing influence of the far right in Brazil.

Thousands of Brazilians joined the student-led demonstrations, where some carried pictures of Bolsonaro made to look like Adolf Hitler and signs that read, "No to the father, no to the son" and "Never again Bolsonaro."

Bolsonaro, a senator who represents the right-wing Liberal Party, is the son of convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for orchestrating a coup attempt after his election loss in 2022. Bolsonaro's supporters stormed government buildings on January 8, 2023, and the former president—a close ally of President Donald Trump—was found guilty of spreading misinformation about the country's voting system and encouraging his supporters to attack the Capitol.

At Wednesday's protest, one supporter of Lula expressed concern for the safety of her transgender wife and remembered the fear many lived with during the coronavirus pandemic, when the elder Bolsonaro refused to take part in basic public health precautions like social distancing and mask-wearing, sent unproven drugs to communities, and spread misinformation about vaccines. Nearly 600,000 people died of Covid-19 across Brazil—the second-highest death toll in the world after the United States.

"I remember my family's lives being at risk during the pandemic," Alice Carneiro told Agence France-Presse in Rio.

Bolsonaro won 47% of the vote on Sunday, while Lula, of the Worker's Party, had 45%. According to an analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in the US, the Brazilian economy saw growth of 8.9% from 2022-25. Lula took office in 2023. His government has passed a new minimum wage law, expanded maternity leave, and increased benefits for low-income families.

The report also notes that high interest rates have raised borrowing costs for households and have increased the rate of delinquency.

Voters will go to the polls for the runoff election on October 25.

Ahead of the first round of voting this week, Lula's campaign accused the Trump administration of interfering in the country's elections.

The US abruptly shut down consular services in Brazil last Friday, citing unspecified "security concerns," and projecting a sense of "instability over the electoral environment,” according to Lula's campaign.

Attorney General Jorge Messias also called for a probe ahead of the election into reports that Trump planned to award $1 million to right-wing groups in Brazil, and Brazilian intelligence officials also briefed French and German diplomats on alleged election interference by the US.

Last year, Trump slapped the country with 40% tariffs, accusing Lula's government of "persecuting" Jair Bolsonaro. The former president's son has pledged to give amnesty to his father and the supporters who took part in the 2023 coup, should he win the election—like Trump, who pardoned January 6, 2021 insurrectionists when he returned to power.

The potential victory of Bolsonaro comes amid a wave of right-wing victories across Latin America, where candidates backed by Trump have won recent elections in Colombia, Chile, and Peru, and the Trump administration has partnered with several governments in joint military operations that officials say are aimed at cracking down on drug trafficking.

The march through Rio de Janeiro also coincided with mass student-led protests across France over cuts to education funding; demonstrations in India against the purging of voter rolls; marches by tens of thousands of people in Spain over housing affordability, sparked by public anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman; and protests against proposed budget cuts in Chile.