Like the US, Brazil remains badly divided, much of it still in the grip of the far right

The defeat of Jair Bolsonaro by Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva removes another corrupt, autocratic populist from power.

But as in the US, the circumstances suggest it could be merely a caesura for the extreme right in a country much of which remains controlled by Bolsonaro allies and supporters.

Lula’s margin in the presidential election was worryingly thin — 50.9% to 49.1% — in an economy with persistently high unemployment, high (albeit now declining) inflation, and staggering wealth inequality.

Much of the south of Brazil voted heavily for Bolsonaro, and a key Bolsanaro supporter, Tarcísio de Freitas, won the governorship of Sao Paulo comfortably — in fact, Bolsonaro supporters won more than half