“Miracles happen when people fight”– Fernando AnitelliIn the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, Flávio Bolsonaro received 47% of the vote, compared to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 45%. Four minor candidates to Lula’s right accounted for 7% of the vote; they would certainly favour Bolsonaro in the runoff. Mathematically speaking, there was no hope.The next day, the mood among those who had voted for Lula was somber. “The first half is over, and Germany is up 5-0,” said a student, recalling the 7-1 defeat in the 2014 football world cup. That first round seemed impossible to reverse.Bolsonaro, too, was convinced of victory. He even announced that he would amend the Brazilian constitution and extend his term from four to six years. The spectre of a long period under a coup-plotting, militia-backed, corrupt, homophobic, environmentally-destructive, anti-indigenous, racist (there will always be more adjectives to add to this list) president was terrifying. At the university, I met students who were depressed, but also outraged. They felt that the election was cancelling their future. Within a few days, those young people took to the streets. It began with the university students in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Then it spread to Salvador. Within a few days, massive demonstrations were taking place across the country’s major and medium-sized cities. When Lula was first elected in 2002, it was said that “hope [had] conquered fear.” In 2026, fear became hope.The streets sparked a social media movement. A young congressman led “Lula’s army” on social media, which recruited 10 million people in two weeks. After 10 years on the defensive, the streets were wrested from the far right – and so were social media platforms – despite interference from Meta. Stickers supporting Bolsonaro became scarce, and the red came out of the closet. Artists, influencers, and even soccer players declared their support for Lula. It was an impressive movement; and everyone felt it. Even the Bolsonaro camp. Bolsonaro found himself forced to appear on televised debates. His arrogant and threatening demeanour, standing behind Lula and pulling faces while the president spoke, was reminiscent of how women are often harassed. When he called Lula “nine-fingered,” the president showed his best side: he recalled his journey as a migrant from the northeast, who lost a finger working overtime in a factory, while his opponent did not even know what it meant to work. Despite all the media training, couldn’t help Bolsonaro but be who he is – and neither could Lula.On the eve of the runoff election, Bolsonaro was still leading in the polls. That day, there were massive demonstrations in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and many other places. Throughout the campaign, a regional divide became more pronounced with the north and northeast regions embodying a popular national sentiment in opposition to the wealthier, more European and pro-Bolsonaro south.Brazil, divided in every sense, erupted with joy when the votes were tallied. Or at least 51% the country did. Emotionally, the election was experienced differently. While Lula’s supporters suffered, Bolsonaro’s supporters aspired to revenge. In defeat, not a single Bolsonaro supporter was seen crying. Certainly, many Lula supporters would have wept over a defeat, but they ended up weeping over the victory. Having won 10 million new votes, Lula won unquestionably.The next day, Bolsonaro fled across the border into Javier Milei’s Argentina, where he boarded a flight to Donald Trump’s United States after making a stopover in Daniel Noboa’s Ecuador – the international fascist network facilitated his escape. In the US, he proclaimed himself ‘president’ in a letter bearing the coat of arms of the “United States of Brazil,” an abject offence to Brazilians. The country’s name ceased to include “United States” half a century ago, and for a century it has been spelled with an “s”: the Federative Republic of Brasil.Setting aside the Freudian slip, the manoeuver had little impact. The Trump administration demanded that the self-proclamation as “president-elect” be removed from the letter, so as to not imply that it was hosting Bolsonaro in that capacity. In Brazil, the far-right recognised the election results. Bolsonaro’s party elected the largest contingent of deputies in decades and saw no reason to get entangled in coup-mongering. Unlike in 2022, when the momentum on the streets favored the Bolsonarists who attacked Brasília, now the streets are with Lula. Four years ago, a coup failed because Joe Biden was president of the US. In 2026, popular mobilisation made a coup impossible, despite Trump’s presidency. This is not to say that the radical right will accept Lula. But it will conspire to topple the government by other means, as with Dilma Rousseff in 2016. On the other hand, Bolsonaro’s flight to the US opens up the contest for ‘the legacy of Bolsonarism,’ which will be claimed by many, including Jair Bolsonaro’s second wife, Michelle Bolsonaro. For the Lula government, the dispute on the right creates openings to navigate a hostile legislature.Despite the expectations on the streets, the Lula-4.0 administration will likely seek negotiation rather than confrontation. In doing so, it risks implementing the right-wing agenda defeated by voters. Since there are no signs of economic growth, the living conditions are likely to deteriorate. Those who mobilise against austerity will be accused of playing into the hands of the right, which, in turn, will rely on the government’s waning popularity to harass it and eventually topple it. If that happens, various far-right factions will unite against any democratic front to crush it.Few Brazilians voted for Lula expecting change. It was a vote in defence of hard-won institutions of democratic social integration, with all their limitations, in the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery. However, life for Brazilians is becoming increasingly difficult and the democratic spirit hangs by a thread. It won’t take much to convince them to trade the slow, gradual and predictable crisis underway for an explosion that will shake things up: a political apocalypse. “Who knows, maybe after the end, things will get better?” many Brazilians think, resonating with an evangelical mindset.A colleague compared the Brazilian electoral turnaround to a revolution. That seems like an exaggeration. However, for Walter Benjamin, revolution is not an acceleration of progress but rather the act of pulling the brakes on history. In Brazil, we haven’t figured out how to defeat the far right, but how to halt it. In recent years, the right has created a political playbook that has spread internationally. The ‘patriots’ who stormed the US Capitol in January 2021 inspired Brazil’s ‘patriots’ who vandalised Brasília two years later. Now, this trend is reversing. In a world with desperate need of brakes, Brazil’s feat has created a playbook for antifascists worldwide.Three weeks ago, no one imagined that the streets would be wrested from Bolsonaro supporters, nor social media. No one imagined that the election would be overturned. These past weeks have reminded us that history is only impossible until it happens. The Brazilians’ feat has opened a window, one that can open many more. Inertia favours the social erosion that fuels the radical-right worldwide.Brazilian anti-fascists have gained a life and this will hearten those fighting around the world. What can be done with this extra life remains to be seen.Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos is professor of Latin American Studies at Unifesp and Prolam-USP. He is the author of Power and Impotence. A History of South America Under Progressivism (Haymarket, 2021).