Belgium

Brussels, 5 October 2026. The Belgian press is treating the first round of the Brazilian presidential election as a denial of opinion polls. La Libre Belgique and La DH, which reproduce the same dispatch, write that conservative senator Flavio Bolsonaro "created a surprise on Sunday" by overtaking the outgoing left-wing president. After the counting of nearly 99% of the ballots, the son of the former head of state obtains more than 47% of the votes, against nearly 45% for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80 years old. The two men will face off in the second round on 25 October.

Belgian headlines highlight the contrast with the polls. These predicted "a slight advantage for Lula until the eve of the vote", and the dispatch specifies that, "as in 2018, the opinion polls underestimated the strength of the right". VRT, which had sent Mattias Tuyls to São Paulo, recalled on Sunday a poll by the country's most widely read daily giving Lula 45% and Bolsonaro 42%, and was already anticipating a second round due to a lack of absolute majority. The journalist also described a "enorme logistieke operatie": around 158 million voters, half a million polling stations, and an entirely electronic vote since 2000.

The day before, La Libre showed two candidates convinced of winning from the first round. Lula, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, had gathered a "red tide" on Paulista Avenue and warned against interference from Donald Trump, opposing "democracy and sovereignty" to "barbarism and corruption". Flavio Bolsonaro, 45 years old, had gathered hundreds of bikers, as his father used to do, and hoped to surf on the right-wing wave, encouraged by the Trump administration, which is affecting Latin America, after Argentina or Colombia.

The articles recall the weight of family heritage. Flavio Bolsonaro was designated as a candidate by his father, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for an attempted coup against Lula in 2022. He said he was "very satisfied" and "very happy at the idea that Brazil can give a definitive answer in three weeks", in a speech in Brasilia. Lula, in São Paulo, acknowledged an "unexpected" result but launched: "The match is going to start. We are in extra time, and that's where we will convince the Brazilian people."

The Belgian account remains focused on the competition between the two camps and the gap between polls and results. The consulted dispatches do not detail the other elections of the day or the reactions of the markets or chancelleries.