Brazil is Swinging to the Right. Here's Why.
Simon Whistler • October 6, 2026
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Note: this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors or inconsistencies.
In the last few years, Latin America's right has been stacking its wins across the continent: San Salvador, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, and this summer Bogota. On Sunday, it seems that the right might be able to take the biggest prize of all: Brasilia.
Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Zaire Bolsonaro, had an unexpectedly strong showing against incumbent Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva in first round voting on Sunday, winning by about two points.
His party also made huge gains in both chambers of Congress. The race is now headed to a runoff on the 25th of October, and if Flavio wins, Brazil would be putting a second Bolsonaro in office just four years after voters threw his old man out.
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About this briefing
Flavio Bolsonaro leads Lula into October's runoff with Congress already in rightist hands — a shift driven less by Washington than by crime and a cost-of-living crisis that Lula's two-decade-old platform no longer answers.