‘He had magnetism’: Lula returns to site of political origins to launch fourth-term campaign

Key Points:

• The 1979-1980 metalworkers' strikes in São Bernardo do Campo, led by union chief Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, played a pivotal role in challenging Brazil's military dictatorship and paving the way for the country's return to democracy in 1985.
• Lula, who later founded the Workers’ Party (PT) in 1980, became Brazil’s first working-class president in 2002 and has since been a major political figure, winning multiple terms and thwarting far-right opposition attempts.
• Nearly 50 years after the strikes, Lula is launching his seventh and final presidential campaign at Vila Euclides stadium, a symbolic site of the labor movement and Brazil’s democratic awakening, amid a tight race against Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro.
• The ABC industrial region, once a stronghold of leftist support and union activism, has shifted politically, with many former PT supporters backing Bolsonaro and only one city in the region currently led by a PT mayor.
• Despite political challenges and generational shifts, Lula retains loyal supporters who view him as a historic leader, though some express concern over the rightward drift of the region and the absence of a clear successor to Lula’s leadership.