00:00And also one day after the victory of Lula, we go live once more to Rio de Janeiro with our
00:05special envoy Belen de los Santos.
00:07Hello, Bel. What do you have for us at this hour?
00:12Hello, Ale. Well, it's such a pleasure to greet you once more here from Rio de Janeiro with the aftermath
00:17of this historic election.
00:20We have been truly following not only what is happening here, the repercussions across the world.
00:25You were just talking about some of the messages that are coming in analysis.
00:30For example, we saw earlier today the message and the gesture from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and so many others,
00:39right,
00:40that are not only greeting the victory of Luis Néstor Lula Silva as its commonality between the heads of states,
00:47but also just highlighting the importance of this for the region.
00:51I wanted to share with you just two things.
00:55First, some of the numbers that make this victory so historic, because we're saying that it was such an important
01:06achievement.
01:07But to put in contrast and so that the audience can truly understand,
01:11first of all, Luis Néstor Lula Silva with this election broke a record being the president that was elected in
01:20Brazil
01:20with the highest amounts of votes, over 64 million votes.
01:26That is the most amount of votes that a president for Brazil elected has ever gotten.
01:33So that is the first record.
01:34But also, he got over 10 million votes in the last three weeks.
01:41So the difference between that first round and the second round meant an enormous increase beyond what any analysis could
01:50expect.
01:51Also, and how did he do this?
01:53Because we've been talking so much during this week about the importance of the people who had not gone to
01:59vote
02:00and calling them over for the election, how Lula Silva could win support on that regard,
02:06and also capturing the votes of the third, fourth, and fifth candidates in the first round,
02:13although they were ideologically not so close to what Lula Silva represents,
02:18still trying to appeal to those voters.
02:21Well, let me tell you, Ale, that from the people who had not gone out to vote in the first
02:27round,
02:28more than 2 million decided to do so, and a majority of those went and voted for Luis Néstor Lula
02:35Silva.
02:36Also, there was a lot of the other votes that were around,
02:41both going to the third, fourth, and fifth candidates in the first round,
02:45but it also those who had voted no or had voted as a blank vote,
02:50they also decided to shift that vote and vote for Lula.
02:55With all of this, he managed to turn around the election, of course, at the national level,
03:01but that was built by a turnaround that meant one state.
03:06Only one state majorly had voted for Flavio Bolsonaro in the first round
03:13and shifted to Luis Néstor Lula Silva in the second round.
03:19That state is Minas Gerais, and it is important because political analysts here in Brazil,
03:25those journalists who follow the election, know that Minas Gerais is a state
03:30that is particularly followed and analyzed by journalists, by researchers,
03:36because it has been a trend for the past elections
03:40that whoever Minas Gerais chooses as president is the one elected for the entire nation.
03:48It is the state that has had, of course, it's just a statistic number, right?
03:52There's no rule regarding that, but it is a fact that that has been happening,
03:57and, curiously, it's the only state that shifted from the first round to the second.
04:04So, maintaining that trend that Minas Gerais is the state,
04:09one of the largest states in terms of the electorate,
04:12after Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the one that chose its presidency.
04:16But, besides that one state, Lula de Silva shifted the vote
04:21and turned around the election in over 210 cities.
04:26So, that is the amount of activism, of mobilization.
04:31When we were saying during the past weeks that there were a lot of activity on the ground,
04:38people going out, speaking, starting up conversations,
04:41thinking about different ways in order to do this,
04:45with all the important electoral campaigns that also happened,
04:49with the activity in social networks as well,
04:52Well, that had one objective, and it manifested itself in that turnaround in over 210 cities.
05:01So, that is a little bit of the numbers to understand this election,
05:05but also, Alex, the importance for the region.
05:08It is a country that, facing an election,
05:12where a candidate was proposing a complete alignment with the United States,
05:17we know that the Bolsonaro family stands for that.
05:20One of the Bolsonaro's sons is actually in the United States.
05:24We have had, during the past year,
05:29this controversy over the tariffs,
05:31and how they had asked for more tariffs for Brazil
05:35in order to pressure the government of Lula de Silva.
05:40Well, that candidate did not win.
05:43And in a region and in a context in which the United States is increasing pressure on the region,
05:50with a signed plan that has the main objective to enforce that control,
05:54the fact that this election went the other way around,
05:58it is of major importance for the entire region.
06:02Well, also, Lula has the challenge now of governing for the whole population of Brazil,
06:10regardless of political ideologies.
06:12I want to ask you, what are the people saying about their expectations regarding the future of the country?
06:22Well, I think that we need to first understand that we continue to be at a very polarized society, right?
06:28You're talking about a two-point difference in this election.
06:32It's a lot because of where it came from, right?
06:35You were two-point difference below, and you went to two-point difference above.
06:39So that is a large gap, much larger, much larger, Alea, I don't know if you can hear me,
06:48much larger than the one that was for the 2022 election, for example.
06:54But it is still a very divided society.
06:56However, this election managed to catch the attention and to catch the vote of many
07:02who were not strictly aligned with Luis Nassar Lula de Silva.
07:06This is important.
07:07Every person who did not vote for Lula de Silva in the first round
07:11and now decided to vote in the second round
07:14is someone who is saying that they do not want the return of a far right to the country,
07:19but they also want to see more achievements
07:22and they will have more demands of the current government as well.
07:26So that process of mobilization, that is why Luis Nassar Lula de Silva has said
07:30that he is shifting his way of government now,
07:33that he will be closer to the bases, closer to the leadership,
07:37closer to what the people are demanding,
07:40and we'll definitely see he will have a far right government,
07:44a far right Congress, I'm sorry.
07:46So definitely that will be the main challenge.
07:49The far right Congress and the people on the streets
07:52giving legitimacy to this new mandate of Luis Nassar Lula de Silva.
07:56Thank you very much.
07:58We will keep in contact with you throughout the day
08:00to know more details in this post-electoral victory for President Lula.
08:06Thank you so much, Ellen.
