Name: Brazil’s likely next president, explained
Uploaded: 2022-08-02T17:10:07.000Z
Duration: 9 min 48 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

On October 2nd, 2022, Brazilians voted  for their next president

and most of the votes went  to two frontrunners.

One was current president and far-right leader.  Jair Bolsonaro.

And the other was Brazil's former president, the left-wing politician

Luiz Inácio da Silva,  also known as Lula.

and was expected to win comfortably  in the first round.

But when the results came in,  Lula's lead was small.

Lula is Brazil's most famous  and popular politician.

and the story of Lula's career is  a good way to see exactly how.

are rooted in his days as a factory worker  and a union leader.

That's where he began his career  as a politician.

thousands of trade union supporters  into a political party.

Lula's coalition drew mainly from  Brazil's political left.

low income people, left-leaning Catholic voters

This is a pretty unique arrangement of forces.

In my opinion, it's one of the things that  allowed the Worker's Party

In 1989, Lula ran as his party's candidate  for president.

He made it to the second round and lost  by only 4 million votes.

Then he lost again in 1994  and again in 1998.

His base was growing,  but not yet enough

Brazil was experiencing  an economic crisis.

At one point, inflation was so  out of control

that the country switched  its new currency

And about a fifth of the country was in poverty.

In the late 1990s, Brazil's center-right  led government

passed a series of dramatic  economic reforms.

They brought inflation down  by establishing a stable currency

But their recovery also left  much of the country behind...

But in 2002, when Lula ran  for president a fourth time

he tried something a little bit different.

In the 2002 race, Lula brought  several members

of Brazil's conservative and  center-right parties

Including prominent businessman, José Alencar

By including them, Lula  expanded his coalition

attracting the support of  center-right voters

Lula's this guy that he can  go to a board meeting

and speak in a way that people will relate to him.

led to Lula winning his first presidential election.

In Lula's first term, Brazil's economy  grew rapidly

mostly because of a booming  trade partnership with China.

He benefited from a magical  economic moment.

He used this cash flow to finance  a new social welfare

for ensuring their children  were attending school

It was a way to give people money  for their immediate needs

while getting them to put  their kids on the path

that would eventually help them  escape that cycle of poverty.

And more Brazilians voted for  left and center-left politicians

and then we had this  massive period of growth.

And even though his administration began to attract accusations

Lula's unprecedented popularity  and coalition building

By the end of Lula's second term in office

And so was the president's approval rating.

OBAMA: The most popular politician on earth.

In 2009, Lula picked a fellow  Worker's Party member