How Lula’s successes in Brazil may have paved the way for his presidential defeat

The brief

Brazil’s veteran leftist President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva trailed Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of his far-right predecessor, in the first-round presidential vote on Sunday. Some analysts suggest that the sweeping anti-poverty measures Lula put in place over two decades may have helped give rise to a growing lower-middle class drawn to the far right’s promise to get the government out of people’s lives.