President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 81, defeated Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in Sunday's runoff to win an unprecedented fourth term. No candidate who trailed in the first round had won a runoff since direct elections returned in 1989. China's foreign ministry congratulated him at once, while an official reaction from President Trump has not been confirmed.
According to Kyunghyang Shinmun and Financial News, Brazil's top electoral court confirmed Lula's victory at 9:10 pm local time on the 25th. With 99.90% counted, Lula had 51.77% and Flavio Bolsonaro 48.23%; the final tally was reported as 51.79% to 48.21%, a margin of about 4.43 million votes. It is Lula's fourth time in power since first taking office in 2003.
광고 문의 · 300×250Flavio Bolsonaro, a Liberal Party senator, is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In the first round on the 4th he led with 47.03% to Lula's 45.16%, a gap of roughly 2.2 million votes. With no precedent of a first-round loser winning the runoff, Lula was expected to be the underdog, but a late consolidation of his base shifted the race.
How the race flipped
Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Lula never regained a lead in the polls yet narrowed the gap late in the campaign. After his win was confirmed, Lula said his side had succeeded in persuading voters how important voting is to defending Brazilian democracy. Financial News noted analysts' view that his firm resistance to pressure from the Trump administration revived his support.
On election day the Supreme Federal Court extended the voting deadline from 5 pm to 7 pm, causing confusion. Some voices raised fraud claims over it, and one outlet reported that Donald Trump Jr. criticized the extension. The reports we reviewed offer no evidence that the extension affected the outcome.
In the first round Lula lost conservative strongholds in the south and center, which deepened worries before the runoff. Compared with his 50.9% to 49.1% win over Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, this margin is somewhat wider. Because the 99.9% count and the final tally differ in decimals, the officially certified figure should be checked separately.
Reactions at home and abroad
According to Herald Economy, leftist leaders such as Mexico's Sheinbaum, Cuba's Diaz-Canel and Uruguay's Orsi, as well as rightist leaders of Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, sent congratulations. Ajunews read this as pragmatism over ideology. Argentina's Javier Milei, however, sent no message; he had backed Bolsonaro during the campaign and called Lula a ‘thief’.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun congratulated Lula at the regular briefing on the 26th and said Beijing would keep building a China-Brazil community with a shared future. On the Bolsonaro camp's call to annul the vote, he said China respects the choice of the Brazilian people. A separate congratulatory message from President Xi Jinping had not been confirmed at the time of reporting.
As of the 26th, no official comment by President Trump on Lula's win had been confirmed. Financial News reported that the Trump administration tacitly backed Bolsonaro. CNN assessed that the result could strengthen Lula's independent diplomacy, which prizes ties with Global South countries and China.
A third view: Beijing's calculus and Washington's silence
According to OBC, Chinese corporate investment in Brazil last year was 6.1 billion dollars, up 45%, and bilateral trade in January-September reached 143.3 billion dollars, a record for the period. For China, political continuity in its largest trading partner and BRICS fellow is welcome news. Washington, by contrast, may regret that the Latin American right-wing bloc was checked. Inside Brazil, commentators say Lula's fourth term will hinge on how he soothes the nearly 49% of voters on the other side.