Germany

Berlin, October 26, 2026. The German press is treating the second round of the Brazilian election on Sunday, October 25, as a historic victory coupled with a test for the institutions. According to the FAZ, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80 years old, won with 51.8% of the valid votes against 48.2% for Flávio Bolsonaro. According to the Tagesschau, citing the Higher Electoral Tribunal, the gap reached nearly 4.4 million votes. The Handelsblatt, reporting from Salvador, speaks of a "spectacular victory" and emphasizes that Lula gained 10.3 million votes between the two rounds, compared to 3.7 million for his opponent.

The FAZ notes that, for the first time since the return to direct presidential elections in 1989, a candidate has made up for a deficit from the first round: Bolsonaro was then leading with 47% against 45%. It points out that Lula won against the trend of the legislative and regional elections, where the Bolsonaro camp achieved good results, and explains it partly by the weaknesses of his rival, including investigations into the financing of a film dedicated to his father. The Tagesschau quotes pollsters as saying that unexpectedly high participation helped Lula; the Handelsblatt says he mainly mobilized abstainers from the first round.

The other side of the story is the contestation. Flávio Bolsonaro, presented by the Tagesschau as the son of the former far-right president under house arrest, stated in Brasília: "It is impossible to recognize the result" and announced that he would request the annulment of the election. He cites the extension of voting by two hours decided shortly before the closing of the polling stations, deemed "unacceptable" and "without precedent". The German media recall that this extension was in response to disruptions in public transportation and bad weather.

The newspapers take care to restore the context: the FAZ specifies that the request came from Lula's campaign, but that Bolsonaro's campaign also demanded an extension, limited to Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, and Santa Catarina, due to rain, flooding, and power outages. The Tagesschau formulates the same nuance: both camps had made the request, only the perimeter differed.

Lula, who will celebrate his 81st birthday this week, presented his victory as a vote for democracy: Brazilians voted to "secure democracy". Thousands of supporters celebrated the result in the streets. DW had previously described the two projects that are diametrically opposed, between the memory of the social programs of Lula's governments from 2003 to 2011 and the desire for revenge of a political dynasty.