LULA AND DILMA’S BRAZIL. THE BRAZILIAN LEFT FROM THE “COMPLEXO DOS VIRA-LATA” TO A “MIDDLE-CLASS COUNTRY” (AND BACK)

Abstract

This article analyses the role of the Brazilian left, in particular the Workers’ Party (PT for its initials in Spanish), from the process of re-democratization and the first elections of 1989 to the end of Dilma Rouseff’s second term and the 2018 electoral process. In the first section we will focus on the PT as the main opposition party, and the subsequent reorganization of the Brazilian left. We will then analyse the presidencies of Lula and Dilma, focusing particularly on economic and social progress, on transformations in Brazilian society and on the core voters of the left; we will also take into consideration the mistakes made and the lack of structural reform which led to the crisis and to the end of the “Workers’ Party era”. The final section attempts to analyse what has happened to the Brazilian left since the 2013 crisis.