'Lula would bring a brighter future': Cambridge economists on the upcoming Brazilian elections
Tiago Cavalcanti and Pedro Mendes Loureiro speak to Eric Williams about the stakes in the election and Bolsonaro’s impact
by ERIC WILLIAMS Follow Eric Williams on Twitter
Saturday October 29 2022
From Sao Paolo’s metalworks, to the Presidency, to prison, and back to the Presidency. On Sunday, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a founding member of Brazil’s left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) and former president from 2003-2010, is facing off the incumbent, Bolsonaro. A Lula victory would be one of the most stunning comeback stories in the country's political history, and may well prove critical in the global fight against climate change.
Stark regional inequality between North and South Brazil is an important factor in this election, and in the nature of Lula’s candidacy. Northern and northeastern Brazil is poor. The comparative wealth of cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the south brings waves of migrants, attracted by the promise of work and better pay. Lula himself made the journey from the northeast to the metalworks of Sao Paulo, where he became a union leader. From there, he went on to help found the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), otherwise known as the Workers’ Party, during the later years of Brazil’s military dictatorship, and ultimately rose to the country’s highest office.
During Lula’s time as President from 2003-10, the Workers’ Party gained mass popularity in the northeast. According to Tiago Cavalcanti, an economics professor at Cambridge and former policy advisor for Brazil’s Rede Sustentabilidade party, the main story of Lula’s time in office was one of poverty reduction, increased access to education, and the extension of “hope for a rich future to all Brazilians” in a nation that had historically been “deeply unequal”.
Implementing a host of social programmes cemented the disadvantaged northeast as a heartland of Workers’ Party support. Raising the minimum wage by 70%, providing cash transfers to the nation’s poorest under the ‘Bolsa Familia’ programme, and opening up access to university education made ground-breaking improvements to material conditions and social mobility.
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https://www.varsity.co.uk/interviews/24497