The leftist president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, declared this Thursday, October 23, that he will be a candidate for re-election for a fourth term in the 2026 elections, during an official visit to Indonesia.
“I am going to run for a fourth term in Brazil (…). My term ends at the end of 2026, but I am preparing to participate in new elections,” Lula declared during a speech with his Indonesian counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, in Jakarta.
“I will be 80 years old (next Monday, editor’s note), but you can be sure that I have the same energy as when I was 30,” he added.
“I have no doubt that I will be a candidate”
In recent months, the Brazilian president, who will return to power in 2023 after two first terms between 2003 and 2010, has suggested several times that he intends to seek re-election if he is in good health, without categorically confirming it.
“If at the time of deciding I have the motivation that I have today, the physical vigor that I have today, the desire that I have today, I have no doubt that I will be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic for a fourth term,” he told local radio in early October.
At the end of 2024, his ability to run for re-election was called into question when he had to undergo emergency surgery to fix a bruise on his skull related to a fall.
Lula also struggled in the polls, particularly due to high food price inflation in early 2025.
But he has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, presenting himself as a defender of “national sovereignty” amid a diplomatic and trade crisis between Brazil and the United States.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is not eligible
President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a punitive 50% surcharge on many Brazilian products and imposed individual sanctions on officials of the South American country in retaliation for an alleged “witch hunt” against his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s predecessor.
No longer eligible, Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced in September to 27 years in prison for an attempted coup d’état aimed at preventing Lula’s return to power following the latter’s electoral victory at the end of 2022.
The Bolsonaro camp has so far proven unable to agree on a candidate for 2026.
Source: BFM TV
