Lula Wins Brazil's Runoff as Pop Fandoms Join the Campaign
Lula won Brazil's presidential runoff on Sunday, 25 October, beating the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro and securing reelection. Brazil's electoral court, the TSE, announced the result. Variety reports that Lula took 51.79% of the vote, to Flávio's 48.21%.
The margin was about 4.4 million votes, according to AFP. That is a big gap, but the route to it was unusual. Variety reports that this is the first time in Brazil's democratic election history that a candidate who finished second in the first round went on to win the runoff. In the first round, held on 4 October, Flávio took 47.03% of valid votes and Lula 45.16%, according to the TSE's first-round results.
Pop fandoms were a big part of the campaign's energy. Variety reports that more than 600 Brazilian fan groups backed Lula before the vote. The day after the first round, fan accounts for Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Katseye, Demi Lovato, Harry Styles, Katy Perry and Selena Gomez offered their platforms to amplify his campaign. Variety also reports that Taylor Swift's advice to her fans to "take the lead" helped Lula win.
At a rally on São Paulo's Avenida Paulista, Lula addressed "comrades" and "fandoms from all over Brazil," Variety reports. Organisers estimated the crowd at more than one million. São Paulo Swiftie Josiane told Variety that young people were inspired by artists, and that Swift talks about young people taking the lead.
Film and television figures joined in too. Guillermo del Toro, Pedro Almodóvar, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem urged a vote for Lula with an "L" hand sign, alongside Brazilian stars. Jordan Firstman made the same gesture on stage at the Rio Film Festival in early October, while presenting Club Kid.
Online, federal deputy André Janones launched a WhatsApp broadcast channel called "Lula's Army," which opened with a 90-minute interview with Lula. By runoff time, Variety reports, the channel had more than 10 million members. A broadcast channel lets one account send messages to followers who cannot reply to each other.
The campaign also ran into trouble with the platforms. On 19 October, the TSE gave Meta 24 hours to show it was not favouring one candidate in its feeds. Meta denied bias but admitted that some of Lula's campaign ads were taken offline temporarily because of technical errors, Variety reports.
The result is not yet accepted by everyone. Reuters reports that Flávio Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator, refused to recognise Lula's win. He said he will seek an annulment, meaning he will ask for the result to be thrown out.
