Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has done the impossible yet again, because apparently one comeback wasn't enough. Within three weeks he overturned a first-round defeat to secure re-election as Brazil's president, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he'd previously failed three times before his first successful run in 2002. At 80 years old, he's now bucked the trend of right-wing electoral victories across Latin America, proving that experience - and perhaps sheer stubbornness - counts for something.
His first presidential victory in 2002 capped an unprecedented journey from poverty. Born to a poor, illiterate peasant family, Lula sold peanuts and shined shoes as a child, only learning to read at age 10. He trained as a metalworker and found work in an industrial city near São Paulo, where he lost the little finger of his left hand in an accident in the 1960s. Politics wasn't initially on his radar, but he threw himself into trade union activism with the enthusiasm of a man who had nothing to lose.
Elected leader of the 100,000-strong Metalworkers' Union in 1975, Lula transformed trade union activism in Brazil, turning government-friendly organisations into a powerful independent movement. In 1980, he brought together trade unionists, intellectuals, Trotskyites and Church activists to found the Workers' Party (PT), the first major socialist party in the country's history. The PT eventually swapped revolutionary zeal for a more pragmatic, social democratic platform - because pragmatism pays better.
When he became president in 2003, Lula was the first leftist leader of Brazil in nearly half a century. He vowed to eradicate hunger and create a self-confident, caring, outward-looking nation. In office, he pumped billions into social programmes and can reasonably claim to have helped reverse Brazil's historic inequalities. By increasing the minimum wage well above inflation and broadening state help to the most impoverished with the Bolsa Familia family grant programme, he helped some 44 million people and cemented his support among the poor. Critics, however, argue the programme failed to address structural problems like a lack of education - because nothing says 'helping' like ignoring the root causes.
He left office after two terms with exceptionally high popularity ratings, having raised Brazil's international profile and presided over the longest period of economic growth in three decades. Unable to run for a third term, he stepped down and was shortly afterwards diagnosed with throat cancer, even shaving his trademark beard during treatment. Doctors declared him cured in 2012. Under his chosen successor, progress stalled, the economic boom gave way to recession, and a massive corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash rocked the political scene.
Lula got caught up in the scandal. In July 2017, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to more than nine years in prison for accepting a beachside flat as a bribe from engineering firm OAS - a sentence increased on appeal to 12 years. He was also jailed for 12 years and 11 months for corruption and money laundering related to bribes from two construction and engineering firms, which funded improvements to a country house he and his family used. He has always maintained his innocence, insisting the accusations were politically motivated. In 2019, he was released after serving just over 18 months, after a Supreme Court ruling that the incarceration had been illegal because it came before all appeals were exhausted. Those convictions were annulled in 2021, leaving him free to run for a third term in 2022, beating right-winger Jair Bolsonaro.
When he re-entered office in 2023, he vowed it would be his last term, and yet his party endorsed him again this year, even though he turns 81 on Tuesday. Even PT backers will admit he achieved more in his first two terms - January 2003 to December 2010 - than in his most recent four years. While supporters called him the 'saviour of the Amazon' ahead of the 2022 election, praising his commitment to protecting the rainforest, some environmentalists have criticised his recent actions - particularly his support for exploratory oil drilling in offshore waters near the mouth of the Amazon. Lula insists he remains committed to eventually phasing out fossil fuels and argues oil revenues are key to financing Brazil's transition to clean energy. His government points to a reduction in deforestation - satellite data suggests the area deforested in the first half of 2026 was the lowest in a decade - as proof its policies are working.
Lula's third term coincided with the return of Donald Trump. The two men represent opposite ends of the political spectrum and have found it impossible not to voice their differences in public. Lula told the BBC in September 2025 that he had no relationship with Trump. Even though the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods in July that year, citing the trial on coup charges of former president Jair Bolsonaro as a trigger. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year jail sentence, and it was his son, Flávio, whom Lula beat in Sunday's election run-off. Lula accused Trump of foreign interference and said 'he's not emperor of the world.' But their relationship improved after a White House meeting in May this year, after which the two exchanged public compliments - Trump called Lula 'dynamic,' while Lula said he left the meeting 'very satisfied.' In July of this year, the US imposed 25% tariffs on most goods from Brazil. The two governments still disagree on key issues such as crime, and Lula acknowledged they are especially far apart on trade.
Referring to what Trump has dubbed the 'Donroe doctrine' - his administration's national security strategy asserting that US dominance in the Western hemisphere should not be interfered with - Lula has insisted that 'Brazil does not fit into anyone's backyard.' Lula has criticised the fact that five countries - the permanent members of the UN Security Council - have veto power, arguing this tilts the balance in favour of WWII winners and excludes nations representing billions of people, like Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, and African countries. Brazil is an active member of Brics, a grouping that unites Brazil with Russia, India, China and South Africa. Lula defends his continued alliances with Russia and China and sees Brics as an emerging counterweight to the West. He has also defended his choice to keep buying Russian oil while Russia wages war in Ukraine - because principles are nice, but so is cheap oil.