Lula’s presidential victory in Brazil is sweet, but will he be able to govern? | Richard Lapper

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva takes over a deeply divided country, and a congress dominated by rightwing parties

The Workers' party (PT) supporters were out in force last night in the centre of Sao Paulo, pretty much as they were 20 years ago when Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva first won the Brazilian presidency. Then, as now, convoys of celebrating Lula-supporting Petista drivers honked their horns, with their chanting, flag-waving passengers precariously hanging out of car windows.

That win - which followed three unsuccessful runs - was sweet. This victory - Lula's third - is perhaps even more gratifying because the former trade union leader has come back from imprisonment, defied his political enemies and condemned his nemesis, Jair Bolsonaro, to defeat. And last night there was an element of relief in the joyous mood because, for the moment at least, the incumbent rightwing populist's dark threats to overturn the result had failed to materialise.

Richard Lapper is author of Beef, Bible and Bullets: Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro