MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump questions Lula’s victory as most of the region, including the right, congratulates him

“They just applied the Biden playbook in Brazil. Bolsonaro had a big lead in the first round and was the clear favourite. But communists don’t give up power once they get it,” Trump said

US President Donald Trump cast doubt on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election in Brazil and compared it with the 2020 US election, while most Latin American governments, including several right-wing allies of Washington, congratulated the Brazilian president. In Argentina, President Javier Milei remained silent.

“They just applied the Joe Biden playbook in Brazil. Bolsonaro had a big lead in the first round and was the clear favourite to win the second. But communists don’t give up power once they get it,” Trump said, according to the EFE news agency, without offering evidence of irregularities. Trump has never acknowledged his defeat by Biden in 2020. The White House has not formally commented on the result, which Senator Flávio Bolsonaro also refuses to recognise and has said he will seek to annul.

One of the first to congratulate Lula was Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi: “I have just spoken with Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a friend. I congratulated him on his victory and on the democratic celebration that an electoral process represents.” Governments of the opposite ideological stripe also did so. Chile’s José Antonio Kast, an ally of the Bolsonaros, said the two countries “have a lot of future in common”; Paraguay’s Santiago Peña hailed “this great democratic day”; and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz noted that Bolivia and Brazil are “neighbouring and brotherly countries”. Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa called for working together against “common enemies”, and Panama’s José Raúl Mulino pledged to keep “working together”. Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum said: “Long live democracy, the people of Brazil won.”

In Argentina, Milei, who backed Bolsonaro during the campaign and even accused Lula of seeking to “steal” the election, had issued no congratulations. The Peronist opposition, by contrast, celebrated. Former president Cristina Kirchner spoke of “a genuine electoral 17 October”, referring to Peronism’s founding date; Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof of “a historic night”; and former presidential candidate Sergio Massa wrote: “Today, as yesterday, on Lula’s side of life.”

Former Chilean president Gabriel Boric, who followed the vote in Brazil, thanked Lula “for never giving up the fight”. Congratulations from right-wing leaders such as Kast, Peña and Paz reflect the weight of Brazil, the region’s largest economy and the main trading partner of several of its neighbours. Lula will begin his fourth term on January 1.