Lula’s victory is a stress test for the Global South

Founding director of the China Institute and Mactaggart Research Chair Emeritus at the University of Alberta. “It looked like another rigged election,” Donald Trump said after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential vote. His administration granted United States visas to Lula’s defeated rival, Flavio Bolsonaro, and his family as they fled to Miami, where Bolsonaro declared himself Brazil’s rightful leader. Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, warmly congratulated Lula and hailed China-Brazil relations as “a model of solidarity and cooperation among Global South countries”.