SEGUNDO TURNO É LULA: The story behind this trend in Social Media today
06-10-2026
The phrase “SEGUNDO TURNO É LULA” (“the runoff is Lula”) spread on Brazilian social media right after the first round of the 2026 presidential election, held on Sunday, 4 October.With nearly all ballots counted, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) finished first with about 47.03% of valid votes (roughly 56.1 million) and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), seeking a fourth term, finished second with about 45.16% (roughly 53.9 million). The gap was about 1.87 percentage points, or a little over 2.2 million votesthe narrowest first-round margin in a presidential race since direct elections returned in 1989. Neither candidate reached the absolute majority of valid votes required to win outright, so the contest goes to a runoff on 25 October.Other candidates were far behind: Augusto Cury (Avante) around 2.9%, Renan Santos (Missão) around 2.2%, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) around 2.2%, and Romeu Zema (Novo) under 0.3%. Abstention was high, with reports of more than 30 million registered voters not casting a ballotseveral times larger than the gap between the two leaders.Lula’s supporters turned the result into the slogan as a mobilization call. Lula himself said he had expected to win in the first round, called the outcome unexpected, and described the runoff as “the moment of the proof of the nine,” adding that he is “very good at the knockout stage.” His camp has pointed to the large number of non-voters and to voters of eliminated candidates as the pool that could reverse the narrow deficit. The phrase functions as an assertion that the second round still favors him, despite the first-round lead for Flávio Bolsonaro (son of former president Jair Bolsonaro) and despite both finalists entering the runoff with high rejection rates in late polls.Coverage also noted Flávio leading digital engagement in the hours after the vote and Lula’s weaker showing relative to his own 2022 first-round total. The slogan is therefore less a claim about the official result than a partisan rallying message in the three weeks before the decisive vote.