Recently Lula da Silva won the run-off to decide the winner of the Brazilian election. While this comes as a great relief to left-wing political movements in Brazil and around the world, Brazil still faces questions about corruption. In a statement released by Transparency International, it is alleged that despite the harsh anti-corruption rhetoric put out by the previous government, Bolsonaro and his administration engaged in corrupt practices. It is alleged that money was funneled to allies of Bolsonaro without government oversight which was spent on multiple pet projects. The Bolsonaro administration has also gutted previous anti-corruption legislation to cover their crimes.   One of the goals of the new government will hopefully be to reinstate and build on anti-corruption legislation, although given Lula’s previous history of alleged corruption, this remains to be seen. 

Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, better known as Lula, has been a prominent figure in Brazilian politics and on the international stage. Silva was the head of the metalworkers union in Sao Paulo state and, in the mid-1980s, founded the Partido Dos Trabalhadores (PT), known in English as the workers’ party. After many failed attempts, he was elected as president of Brazil in 2003 and served until 2010. In 2014 four years after he left office, a massive corruption scandal involving the state oil firm Petrobras.  

According to BBC, In July 2017, Lula was found guilty of receiving a beachfront house as a bribe from a construction firm called OAS in return for his aid in winning lucrative government contracts.   After spending four years in prison, his convictions were annulled because the alleged crimes took place in Brasilia when Lula was president and not in Curitiba in the state of Parana. This freed up the possibility for him to run again for president after three years of populist rule under Jair Bolsonaro. The first round of the election was held recently, and while Lula got 48% of the vote, he needed 50% to win outright. (Bolsonaro received 42%) A runoff will be held at the end of the month to determine the winner. It is difficult to know what the truth is here: Is Lula a hero to Brazil’s working class, or is he like so many other politicians who are corrupted by power?