The presidential candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, obtained a wider margin of support among Brazilians living in Spain than at the national level in the second round held on Sunday, in which the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro was defeated.
Lula won with 50.9 percent of the vote, while Bolsonaro obtained 49.1 percent at the end of a heart-stopping recount in which the two candidates were neck and neck. In fact, Bolsonaro has yet to concede defeat.
In Spain, two polling stations were set up in Madrid and Barcelona, in both cases with Lula’s victory. The former president obtained 56.09 percent of the 5,489 votes cast in the capital, compared to 43.91 percent for the outgoing president.
Lula’s advantage is greater in Barcelona, where he won 75.51 percent of the votes. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, had to settle for 24.49 percent of the 4,299 valid votes, according to official data collected by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE).