Public anger risks producing political amnesia in Brazil

LESS than two years ago, Brazil’s municipal elections seemed to give a clear message. The vote came barely a month after Dilma Rousseff, the president, was impeached for fiscal misdemeanours, ending more than 13 years of rule by the left-of-centre Workers’ Party (PT). Brazilians gave the PT a hammering: the party won only 254 mayoralties out of more than 5,500, down from 638. The centre-right Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) did well, winning 803. Everything suggested that the PSDB, which governed Brazil successfully in 1995-2002, would win this year’s presidential election.

With just a month to go before the election, the country’s politics have been turned upside down. The PSDB’s candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, languishes at about 7% in the opinion polls. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the PT’s leader and Ms Rousseff’s mentor, commands around 37% and a widening lead, despite having begun a jail sentence for receiving a beachside flat from a construction firm that benefited from padded government contracts. The electoral tribunal confirmed on August 31st that he cannot run for office, since his conviction was upheld on appeal. Lula’s task now is to persuade his supporters to vote for Fernando Haddad, the PT’s vice-presidential nominee and a former mayor of São Paulo.