Lula, Bolsa Família and a divided country
A former metalworker becomes president and presides over a boom that lifts millions out of poverty; corruption scandals, recession and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro then split Brazil into two angry camps.
- The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 — Wendy Hunter, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- The Nuts and Bolts of Brazil's Bolsa Família Program — Kathy Lindert, Anja Linder, Jason Hobbs and Bénédicte de la Brière, World Bank (2007)
- The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 — FAO, IFAD and WFP, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2014)
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
- The Brazilian Economy: Growth and Development — Werner Baer, Lynne Rienner (2014)
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva grew up in poverty in Pernambuco, moved to São Paulo as a child, worked as a lathe operator and led the great metalworkers’ strikes of 1978–80 against the dictatorship. He co-founded the Workers’ Party (PT) in 1980, lost three presidential elections, and won in 2002.
- The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 — Wendy Hunter, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
His governments (2003–2010) coincided with a commodity boom. They combined orthodox economics with large increases in the minimum wage and Bolsa Família, a programme that paid small monthly sums to poor families on condition that children attended school and had health check-ups. Tens of millions of people moved out of poverty into a “new middle class”, inequality fell, and in 2014 the UN’s food agency reported that Brazil had left its Hunger Map. Racial and social quotas, made national law in 2012, opened public universities to many students who were the first in their families to attend.
- The Nuts and Bolts of Brazil's Bolsa Família Program — Kathy Lindert, Anja Linder, Jason Hobbs and Bénédicte de la Brière, World Bank (2007)
- The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 — FAO, IFAD and WFP, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2014)
- Lei nº 12.711, de 29 de agosto de 2012 (Lei de Cotas) — Presidência da República (2012)
- The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 — Wendy Hunter, Cambridge University Press (2010)
Then the tide turned. Mass street protests in 2013, a deep recession, and the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) investigation into kickbacks at Petrobras discredited much of the political class. Lula’s successor Dilma Rousseff was impeached in 2016 over budget manipulation, and Lula was jailed in 2018, keeping him out of that year’s election, which the far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro won. Lula’s convictions were annulled in 2021; he beat Bolsonaro narrowly in 2022. A week after his inauguration, Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace, and in 2025 the Supreme Court convicted Bolsonaro of plotting a coup.
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
The Workers' Party governments cut hunger and poverty dramatically, opened universities to poor and Black students, and gave the poor a stake in the nation. Lula's 2018 imprisonment was political persecution, as shown when the Supreme Court annulled his convictions and found the judge biased.
- The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 — Wendy Hunter, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 — FAO, IFAD and WFP, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2014)
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
The Car Wash investigation exposed huge, systematic corruption at Petrobras under PT governments, and the annulments were procedural, not a declaration of innocence. Spending and state intervention under Lula's successor Dilma Rousseff led to the deep recession of 2015–16.
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
- The Brazilian Economy: Growth and Development — Werner Baer, Lynne Rienner (2014)
Why it matters today
Few things divide Brazilian families like Lula and Bolsonaro. To many poorer Brazilians, especially in the northeast, Lula is the president who put food on their tables; to many others, he embodies the corruption of the political class. Asking someone what they think of either can end a dinner.