Few political careers travel as far as that of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He went from a barefoot childhood in Brazil’s impoverished northeast to the presidency, then from a prison cell to a stunning return to the same office. His story binds together the rise of Brazil’s labour movement, the country’s turbulent anti-corruption era, and one of the most improbable comebacks in modern politics.
The Rise: From Factory Floor to National Stage
Born on 27 October 1945 in Pernambuco, Lula grew up in poverty and migrated with his family to the industrial region of Sao Paulo. He left school early, worked as a shoeshine boy and street vendor, and trained as a metalworker, losing part of a finger in an industrial accident. On the factory floor he found his political voice, rising through the metalworkers’ union to lead major strikes in the late 1970s that challenged Brazil’s military dictatorship.
His origins made the ascent all the more striking. Raised by a mother who held the family together through hardship, Lula learned to read only as a boy and never attended university, an outsider’s background that would later define his political appeal to Brazil’s working poor.
In 1980 he helped found the Workers’ Party, giving organised labour a national political vehicle. He ran for president and lost three times before Brazilians, in 2002, elected the former union firebrand to their highest office.
Power: Two Terms and Soaring Approval
Taking office in January 2003, Lula governed as a pragmatist rather than the radical his critics had feared. His administration expanded social programmes, most notably the Bolsa Familia cash-transfer scheme, which is widely credited with lifting millions out of extreme poverty during a decade of strong commodity-driven growth. Re-elected in 2006 after a runoff he won by a wide margin, he left office at the start of 2011 with approval ratings that were the envy of leaders worldwide.
The Fall: Corruption Conviction and Prison
Then came the reversal. As the sprawling “Lava Jato,” or Car Wash, investigation swept through Brazil’s political and business elite, Lula was charged with corruption and money laundering. In 2017 he was convicted and sentenced to prison, and in April 2018 he began serving his sentence, spending 580 days behind bars. His imprisonment barred him from the 2018 election, which was won by the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula and his supporters always maintained the charges were politically driven, an effort to remove him from public life. Critics insisted the convictions reflected genuine graft. The dispute would ultimately be settled not on the streets but in the courts.
The Comeback: Annulment and a Return to Power
In 2021, Brazil’s Supreme Court annulled Lula’s convictions, ruling that the court that had tried him lacked jurisdiction, and separately finding that the lead judge had been biased. The rulings restored his political rights and cleared his path back to the presidency. They did not amount to a declaration of innocence on the facts, but they wiped away the sentences and the bar on his candidacy.
Freed and rehabilitated, Lula assembled a broad coalition and challenged Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. In a bitterly contested runoff he won narrowly, and on 1 January 2023 he was inaugurated for a third term, more than two decades after first reaching the office and just years after sitting in a jail cell.
Legacy
Lula’s return has not been without difficulty, from a polarised electorate to the hard economics of governing a vast, unequal country. Yet the shape of his life remains extraordinary: a man who rose from poverty and the factory floor to lead his nation, fell into disgrace and imprisonment, and returned to power after the courts overturned his convictions. For millions of Brazilians, his journey embodies both the promise and the turbulence of their young democracy.
