Not Taking It Well
Bolsonaro refuses to concede Brazilian presidential election
While it was projected Sunday that leftist politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would be the next president of Brazil, his opponent, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, has still refused to concede the election.
Lula's victory, which was announced by the country's Superior Electoral Court, comes following a contentious and down-to-the-wire race between the two candidates.
Bolsonaro, an icon of the Brazilian far-right known for his populist views, narrowly lost the election to Lula, who had previously served as president from 2003 to 2010 and is now set to be inaugurated for a third term. The nation's electoral authority reported Lula received 50.90 percent of the votes, compared to Bolsonaro's 49.10 percent, one of the closest margins in Brazilian history.
However, despite the Brazilian courts and nearly every major news outlet calling the race for Lula, Bolsonaro had still not conceded the election as of Monday afternoon. The New York Times noted that neither Bolsonaro nor his three politician sons — all of whom are prolific users of social media — had made any comments on the election since Lula's victory.
Bolsonaro's unwillingness to concede, as well as his behavior leading up to the election, is similar to one of his closest allies — former President Donald Trump. Often called the "Tropical Trump" himself, Bolsonaro has previously said he would possibly refuse to accept the electoral outcome, and also claimed to be the victim of widespread voter fraud, something that is almost directly out of Trump's playbook following his 2020 loss to President Biden.