Brazilian politician “Lula” has won the presidency by a hair, making it his third term but not in a row.

Lula is on the left and his main opponent (and previous president) Bolsonaro is on the right. This seems to be a pattern, and not just in Brazil or the US, either: close whiplash elections leading to whiplash policies. Lula is friendly to Iran, for example, and is into the leftist view of climate change. You can learn more about him here.

In addition, Lula’s return is part of a trend that also occurred recently for the US: an elderly president. Lula is 76 years old. In addition, he’s being elected:

…after a series of corruption allegations lead to his imprisonment for 580 days. The sentences were later annulled by the Supreme Court, clearing his path to run for reelection.

That’s what the left in this country is determined to do to President Trump, of course.

Was Lula guilty? From that same Wiki profile you can see that it’s pretty convoluted:

On 4 March 2016, as part of “Operation Car Wash”, Brazilian authorities raided Lula’s home…A police statement alleged that Lula had collaborated in illegal bribes from the oil company Petrobras to benefit his political party and presidential campaign….

On 16 March 2016, Rousseff appointed Lula as her chief of staff, a position comparable to that of prime minister. This would have shielded him from arrest due to the immunity that went with the position…Supreme Court Judge Gilmar Mendes suspended Lula da Silva’s appointment on the grounds that Rousseff was trying to help Lula circumvent prosecution…

Lula was found guilty by the lower court of accepting R$3.7 million in bribes ($1.2 million US) in the form of improvements to his beachfront house, made by construction company Grupo OAS [pt], which in turn received lucrative contracts from the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Lula also faced other charges, including money laundering, influence peddling and obstruction of justice. On 12 July 2017, Sergio Moro sentenced Lula to nine and a half years in prison. Lula remained free pending his appeal. Lula’s lawyer accused the judge of bias and the judge replied that nobody, not even the former president, should be above the rule of law…

On 23 March 2021, the Supreme Federal Court ruled by a 3–2 decision that Moro, who had overseen Lula’s trial in a case, was biased against him…

On 5 April 2018, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) voted 6–5 to deny Lula’s habeas corpus petition. The court ruled that Lula must begin serving the sentence relating to 12 July 2017 conviction, despite not having exhausted all of his appeals…

On 9 June 2019, The Intercept published leaked Telegram messages between the judge in Lula’s case, Sérgio Moro, and the Operation Car Wash lead prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, in which they allegedly conspired to convict Lula to prevent his candidacy for the 2018 presidential election…

On 8 November 2019, Lula was released from prison after 580 days when a Brazilian Supreme Court ended mandatory imprisonment of convicted criminals after their first appeal failed…

Judge Edson Fachin of the Supreme Federal Court annulled all convictions against Lula on 8 March 2021, ruling that the court in Curitiba which convicted him lacked jurisdiction to do so, and ordered a retrial in Brasilia. A full Supreme Court bench later upheld the ruling by an 8–3 decision on 15 April.

The UN also got into the act, as well as Bernie Sanders and the NY Times. At any rate, that’s where it seems to have ended, and now he’s president.

More here on the election:

The former leader’s victory on Sunday was the latest in a political wave across Latin America, with wins by left-leaning politicians in Argentina, Colombia and Chile. But Lula da Silva – a former union leader with a blue-collar background – has sought to reassure moderates throughout his campaign…

Hours after the results were announced, Bolsonaro had yet to concede defeat or make any public statement. Meanwhile, videos on social media showed his supporters had blocked highways in two states to protest against Lula da Silva’s victory.

“We will only leave once the army takes over the country,” one unidentified Bolsonaro supporter said in a video taken in the southern state of Santa Catarina…

[Lula] may find that enacting his agenda is an uphill battle…especially with a hostile Congress. Seats that were from the traditional right are now occupied by the far right…

In the latest elections, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party increased its representatives in the lower house from 76 to 99, while in the Senate it doubled from seven members to 14. Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party has also increased its number of deputies from 56 to 68 and senators from seven to eight – but overall, conservative-leaning politicians will dominate the next legislature.

A split-personality result that results in a leftist president and a legislature on the right.

NOTE: The reference in the title of this post is to this song: