With Flávio Bolsonaro emerging stronger after the first round, Lula faces a decisive runoff that will test his ability to reinvent himself and the future of Brazilian democracy.
The Bolsonaro-led offensive against career diplomats revives the specter of the dictatorship’s ideological purges and threatens to turn Itamaraty into a tool of political loyalty.
As Brazil heads into the presidential runoff, the country faces the challenge of choosing between the desire for change and the risks posed by the concentration of power and political nepotism.
Religion has been central to Brazil’s political transformation, from the Liberation Theology that helped propel the left to the rise of Pentecostalism as a conservative force.