South African and British Communists Congratulate Lula
Lula amid the mass celebrations on election night in Brazil -- Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Monday, 26 October 2026: At stake in the Brazilian elections was, and remains, the defence of Brazil’s national self-determination and democratic sovereignty, on the side of Lula. Lula’s presidential campaign was supported not only by his own party but notably by a broad front of Left and progressive parties, organisations, social movements and democratic forces. Ultimately, as the election results show, this campaign secured the support of the majority of the electorate, reflecting the will of the people. On the side of the right wing was, and remains, a reactionary agenda with fascist characteristics, backed by powerful domestic and international interests, including support from the imperialist regime of the United States and its establishment. This includes the influence and manipulation of major internet and digital media platforms.
The United States’ imposition of 50% per cent tariffs on Brazilian goods in 2025 was clearly aimed at exerting economic pressure on Brazil, weakening its developmental trajectory, and using the resulting economic consequences to foster discontent against Lula’s presidency, strengthen right-wing opposition forces, and advance an imperialist-backed regime-change agenda, including via the ballot. In response, Lula’s presidential campaign placed the defence of Brazil’s sovereignty at the centre.
Economic development and expansion, and the continued defence of national democratic sovereignty remain among the principal tasks facing Lula’s presidency after defeating the agenda in elections in an international atmosphere characterised by the continued aggression of United States-led imperialism. The revolutionary and progressive people of Brazil will need to deepen and expand their unity, particularly because the right wing continues to dominate several key centres of economic, political, and ideological power, such as the media, information and communication technology, and associated digital platforms.
Legitimate concerns about major United States-based transnational digital platforms manipulating public opinion to shape electoral outcomes emerged sharply during the election period. When the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court ruled in favour of Lula and ordered Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to ensure equal treatment of presidential candidates, it did so in response to concerns from Lula’s campaign about the negative impact of platform bias and favouritism on the fairness of the electoral process. The court further directed Meta not to restrict searches, content distribution, or posts, and to avoid any conduct that created electoral imbalances. This type of conduct disadvantaged Lula and advantaged the right-wing candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro. In its judgment, the court warned of substantial financial penalties for non-compliance.
Among the issues raised was evidence from leaked internal communications showing that Meta employees acknowledged Lula’s Instagram accounts faced restricted reach and technical irregularities, while content associated with Bolsonaro favourably benefited from platform recommendations and algorithmic amplification. This reinforced concerns about the concentration of power in transnational digital platforms controlled by private capital and their capacity to influence democratic processes in favour of imperialist regime change and other machinations.
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The Communist Party of Britain welcomes the historic re-election of Comrade Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil. Brazil is a geographical, environmental, economic, industrial and population giant amongst nations. Brazil is also a co-founder of the BRICS, a key reason that it has become a target of Donald Trump’s interference in its political system and US imperialist aggression.
The victory of Lula and his Workers’ Party over the comprador and neofascist candidate of the far right, Flávio Bolsonaro is a victory for people’s power and the massive grassroots mobilisation, which wrecks Donald Trump and Marco Rubio’s plans and blocks the advance of US imperialism, the far right and oligarchs in Latin America.
That is why people all over the world from India and Africa, to Britain, Europe, Cuba and across Latin America are celebrating Lula’s victory with the people of Brazil today. It is an inspiration to all the popular forces worldwide that confront the tyrannical power of imperialism and reaction.
In his victory speech, President Lula explicitly referred to the gross interference in Brazil’s election by US media oligarch, Mark Zuckerberg through his Meta platform which owns WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Threads. President Lula said:
“We had to overcome foreign interference through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. We cannot have monstrously huge corporations earning millions & billions, paying no taxes to this country & trying to steer this country’s election results.”
The Communist Party massively congratulates the Brazilian people and welcomes this long overdue reckoning for unaccountable media oligarchs who have interfered in elections in country after country across Latin America amd beyond. People’s power in Brazil has beaten the unaccountable power of the oligarchs and overturned the so-called ‘Donroe Doctrine’.
26 October 2026
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