Ekeroth: The West's Hypocrisy Over Lula's Rigged Victory

EDITORIAL • Imagine the headlines on SVT, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet if Viktor Orbán or Donald Trump had done what just happened in Brazil. First, the main challenger is sentenced to 27 years in prison and banned from running. Then the opposition is silenced online by a politicised court. And when voters in the decisive round still look set to vote the wrong way, the president's own former defence lawyer steps in from his seat on the Supreme Court, overrules a unanimous electoral court one minute after closing time, freezes the count and orders polls kept open two extra hours, with 80 percent of polling stations already closed. But this time the left did it. So it is celebrated.

When counting resumed, 80-year-old Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had suddenly taken 71 percent of all the new votes added since the first round. Minutes after the win, the government camp demanded that the defeated Flávio Bolsonaro have his passport seized and be jailed. The passport part has already happened. Had a conservative Western government done the same, the European Commission, the left and the media would have screamed coup and slapped on sanctions the same day. When a socialist wins, the scandal is met with cheers in Brussels, victory whoops from Sweden's Social Democrats and Left Party, and silence in Swedish newsrooms.

The lawyer who decided the election

When polls were legally due to close at 5 p.m. on Sunday, both the electoral court TSE and the electoral prosecutor said no to an extension. At one minute past five, a single Supreme Court justice, Cristiano Zanin, overruled them, according to O Globo journalist Malu Gaspar.

Brazilian journalist Malu Gaspar says all Superior Electoral Court ministers were against the idea of extending the voting in Brazil by 2 hours. Zanin, Lula’s former personal lawyer, appointed by Lula to Supreme Court Justice made that decision anyway

- Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 26, 2026

Zanin defended Lula in his corruption trials and was appointed to the Supreme Court by Lula in 2023. At the Lula campaign's request, he ordered a two-hour nationwide extension, citing an alleged shortage of buses, even though Lula's government and its allies in states like Bahia run the public transport. The TSE had to freeze the count while polling stations that had not yet shut down their electronic voting machines stayed open.

If a conservative government in Brazil did this, everyone in the mainstream press in America would lose their minds, but I guess they’re just choosing to be silent because it’s all for the cause.

- Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 25, 2026

Even in the New York Times, Brazilian election lawyers warn that the result could be annulled, since most polling stations closed at 5 p.m. while others stayed open in Lula strongholds. Lawyer Priscilla Sodré Pereira calls it "an extremely serious and critical situation", and election law professor Fernando Neisser of Fundação Getulio Vargas points out that elections can be voided when unequal opening hours favour one candidate.

A mathematical near-impossibility

In the first round on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro won 47.0 percent, or 56.1 million votes, against Lula's 45.2 percent, or 53.9 million. The nine million votes of the eliminated candidates came almost entirely from centre-right and conservative voters who backed Bolsonaro. Yet in the runoff, almost 14 million new votes appeared as turnout surged and blank ballots collapsed. Lula took more than 10.3 million of them, 71 percent, and Bolsonaro just 3.7 million.

"I think this is something completely unprecedented on the planet! Mathematically it is almost impossible for this to happen," said maths teacher Davi Sérgio. Britain's Tommy Robinson summed up the numbers:

An estimated 80% of polling stations were closed when they extended the hours. 213 cities that voted Flávio in the 1st round, voted Lula in the 2nd. 10,282,707 more votes. Soros celebrates. Make of this information what you will.

- Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) October 26, 2026

Prison demanded at once

While Lula promised tougher state "regulation" of social media in his victory speech, left-wing congresswoman Duda Salabert wrote: "We won! Now prison awaits Flávio Bolsonaro!" She filed a motion to seize his passport so he could not join his brother in the United States.

His father Jair Bolsonaro is already serving 27 years after a politicised process led by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and his brother Eduardo lives in exile in the US to avoid political prosecution. Now the son who won close to 60 million votes is to be locked up too. Police were waiting at his gate right after the election to enforce the court order.

In Sweden, meanwhile, public broadcaster SVT dutifully reports that "polling stations stayed open two hours longer than planned" and that Brazilians "defended democracy", without a word about the judge behind the decision being Lula's own defence lawyer.

The Swedish left's victory high

Despite the extension, the prison demands and the online censorship, Swedish Social Democrat and Left Party figures are competing to cheer the result. Social Democrat foreign policy spokesman Morgan Johansson rejoiced:

Two important elections with gratifying results: Brazil and Serbia. In Brazil, Lula can keep working to reduce poverty and increase equality, and in Serbia the election can bring the country closer to the EU and break with Russia. Important victories over right-wing nationalism and extremism! 🌹

- Morgan Johansson (@johanssonmorgan) October 26, 2026

Annika Strandhäll, chair of the Social Democratic Women, wants to stop Elon Musk and social media:

Brazil and Serbia show that it is possible to win against the fascists. But politicians cannot do it alone, the people must say together that enough is enough. We will not allow them, through people like Musk, to infiltrate our social media and attack other independent media. We stand up for our democracy. We say stop. Enough is enough.

- Annika Strandhäll (@strandhall) October 26, 2026

So in Social Democrat language, "standing up for our democracy" means the president's corruption lawyer on the Supreme Court keeps the ballot boxes open on overtime until the socialist has won, after which social media is shut down and the opposition jailed.

Former Left Party economic spokeswoman Ulla Andersson chimed in, misspelling the opponent's name: "In Brazil the fascist Bolsinario lost the election... What a wonderful victory!" And columnist Göran Greider, reposted by Johansson, exclaimed: "Ha! Lula won! A victory for the rainforest, and a defeat for the global right, including Trump."

Putin's favourite in BRICS

It turns unintentionally comic when Johansson in the same breath celebrates Serbia "breaking with Russia". Lula founded BRICS with Russia and China to break the dollar, has refused to send a single bullet to Ukraine, told Time that Zelensky is "as responsible as Putin" for the war, and travelled to Moscow in May 2025 to honour Putin at the Victory Day parade.

Hours before the Swedish Social Democrats' celebrations, Putin congratulated his ally from the Kremlin on his win and his 81st birthday: "Your personal contribution to strengthening the strategic partnership between Brazil and Russia can hardly be overestimated." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also welcomed the result.

When European right-wing politicians put their own people first, the left screams about "Putin's useful idiots". But when Putin's foremost South American ally wins a rigged election through his own lawyer on the Supreme Court, von der Leyen, Johansson and Strandhäll stand in the same cheering section as the Kremlin.

The grotesque cheering in Brussels

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who wants to rescue the Mercosur deal and sees Lula as an ally against Donald Trump, rushed out to congratulate her "friend": "Democracy and multilateralism have won in Brazil." France's Emmanuel Macron praised the partnership "in the service of a fairer world", billionaire heir Alex Soros cheered that Brazil had "once again stood up to authoritarianism", and Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, under pressure ahead of November's snap election, went furthest:

A great victory for Lula! What has happened in Brazil will happen in Spain. The global return of the progressive forces has only just begun.

- Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 26, 2026

A prototype for the West

French commentator Brivael Le Pogam notes that the Western left-wing elite can no longer win an open debate after mass immigration, insecurity, public debt and economic decline: "They are not even hiding anymore. Authoritarianism is when a people votes wrong. Democracy is when a judge keeps the polls open until the result is the right one. Brazil is not an exception. It is a prototype for the West."

Commentator Guillaume Herblot recalls that electoral court chief Alexandre de Moraes flatly refused when Bolsonaro's camp asked for extended hours during road blockades in 2022. "Without the ability to remove political judges, elections remain theatre," Herblot writes, pointing to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's warning: "If you don't remove the corrupt judges, you cannot reform the country. They will form a cartel, a judicial dictatorship, and block every reform."

That judicial dictatorship now runs Brazil. The fact that von der Leyen, Johansson, Strandhäll and the Swedish media call the spectacle a victory for democracy shows how little they respect the will of the people when voters choose wrong.

Kent Ekeroth is Executive Director of Samnytt and a former member of the Swedish Parliament.