The lesson from Lula and Serbia

Giovanni Diamanti wrote that Lula’s victory between the first and second rounds – something that was almost impossible to imagine – was built ‘on the remobilisation of the left-wing electorate’. Rather than convincing voters from the opposing camp — a truly arduous task in Brazil as it is here — he “found a way to bring demotivated voters, who had stayed at home in the first round, back to the polls”. What was that way? The town squares, of course. Seeking votes “house by house, street by street”, as Enrico Berlinguer said in his last unforgettable rally in Padua. Television, too. In his televised debates with Bolsonaro, Lula landed two decisive blows that made headlines around the world: his response to the ‘novedita’ – as his opponent disparagingly called him – reminding ‘someone who has never worked a day in his life’ that he had lost his little finger whilst working night shifts at a factory at the age of seventeen. When challenged on how high his support was amongst prisoners, Lula replied, “I hope all prisoners vote for me, including your father.” Social media was responsible for spreading these snippets far and wide. A formidable digital campaign was orchestrated by André Janones, a forty-year-old MP and social media expert, who set up a group that has now reached ten million members. It is clear that the issues must be driving this: Lula is tapping into social anger – something we too feel – against the excessive power and arrogance of the rich. Upon the announcement of his victory, the stock market plummeted by 17 points – and there is no more eloquent way to explain how the System works, or in what and in whom the wealthy elite who hold and control power place their trust: here is a graph showing a downward trend. At the very same time, Serbian youth overturned another predicted result: the victory of the pro-Russian nationalist party. The movement arose from protests over the collapse of a bus shelter at the railway station. Sometimes, you see, all it takes is a bus shelter, a broken staircase, a missing bench, and the fire flares up.