Lula gana, pero el Brasil que lo hizo imbatible ya no existe

In the days leading up to the election, a group of elderly women with Lula pins on their lapels gathered to wave flags outside a market in Ipanema, a Rio neighborhood. The cheerful and noisy group stopped in front of a flower stall. Saulo, a florist from the Rocinha favela, a Bolsonaro supporter, expressed his discontent. He was not sharing his announcements with them and blocking the way of potential customers.

One of them accused him of voting for Lula. Lula is the one who gives him money, he said. "I have never given Lula any money. And here I am, working since four in the morning," he replied. The scene, a white woman from one of Rio's priciest neighborhoods explaining to a black man from a favela who should vote, epitomizes the problem Lula inherits after his Sunday victory: a part of Brazil that its governments prioritized no longer identifies with him.

They no longer want social assistance, but to start businesses, prosper, and most importantly, pay their monthly bills.