Halfway through a televised debate on Friday evening that was his last chance to turn around his final election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was starting to look his age. Brazil’s 80-year-old president was confused at times by the format and irritated at the self-confidence of his much younger rival, Flávio Bolsonaro.⁠
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But then the 45-year-old senator called Lula 'nine-fingers', a crude joke sometimes made in rightwing circles in Brazil about the digit lost in a metalworking factory accident in São Paulo when Lula was still a teenager.⁠
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Lula, who will be 81 on Tuesday, took centre stage and looked directly at the camera. 'I was a minor and working at night, because either I worked or I did not eat,' he said, a stark reminder of the president’s humble origins in one of the world’s most unequal countries. 'I will not accept a posh guy calling me nine-fingers.'⁠
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It is impossible to know whether that exchange, which ricocheted around the internet over the weekend, helped shift Brazil’s election. But opinion polls taken before Friday’s debate gave Bolsonaro an average lead of 2 percentage points. Lula won on Sunday by 3.5 percentage points.⁠

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Congratulations on Lula’s incredible comeback! Watching him turn things around and win again, especially against a political movement so closely aligned with Trump, is genuinely inspiring.

As someone from Morocco who fell in love with your country when I visited, I’m so happy to see Brazilians stand up for what they believe in. You remind the world that political comebacks are possible and that people still have the power to shape their country’s future.

Sending love from Morocco! You guys are such an inspiration 💚💚

It’s been over 24 hours since Lula’s victory and Bolsonaro’s defeat. What’s the mood like where you are? How are your family, friends, and colleagues reacting, and what have people been saying?