Why Brazil's Lula Is Not What Progressive Media Pretends
November 8, 2025 · Frisian News
Brazil's president Lula da Silva runs a centrist government that prioritizes business ties and foreign investment over radical social change, despite his leftist rhetoric and support from progressive outlets.
Last month, Brazil approved a 290 billion real spending package aimed at widening its fiscal framework. This move came straight from Lula's finance minister Fernando Haddad, a seasoned technocrat who studied at prestigious universities abroad and maintains close ties to Brazil's banking sector. The package protects government spending while keeping the central bank happy, a balancing act that looks nothing like the radical redistribution progressives claim Lula promised.
Western media outlets celebrated Lula's return to power in 2022 as a triumph of leftist politics over Bolsonaro's populism. They painted him as a champion of the working poor and an enemy of neoliberalism. What they glossed over was Lula's actual record: in his first presidency from 2003 to 2010, he governed as a pragmatist who cut deals with agribusiness, protected multinational corporations, and accepted IMF orthodoxy on inflation control. His Workers' Party became a machine for patronage and political survival, not revolution.
Today, Lula courts investment from the same international capital sources that progressives claim to oppose. His government negotiates trade agreements, protects property rights for foreign firms, and maintains orthodox monetary policy through an independent central bank. When indigenous groups and landless peasants demand radical land reform, Lula talks but acts little. When workers strike for better wages, his government does not back them with state power as a truly leftist administration would.
The contradiction is not hard to spot. Progressive media needs heroes, and Lula fits the mold of a former political prisoner turned president. His rhetoric still invokes workers and the poor, which gives journalists the soundbites they want. But his actual policies serve a narrower coalition: the state bureaucracy, parts of the business class, and the institutional left that benefits from Lula in power rather than demanding real change from him.
Brazil's poor remain poor. Inequality has not fallen in any meaningful way since Lula took office again. Yet Western progressives celebrate him as though he were Fidel Castro, when he is really just another centrist manager of capitalism with better marketing. His government will continue to deliver modest welfare spending and worker-friendly rhetoric while protecting the core structures that keep wealth and power concentrated at the top.
Foarline moanne keurde Brazilië in útsjafte-pakket fan 290 miljard real goed dat rjochte is op ferwidering fan syn fiskeale ramt. Dizze stap kaam direkt fan Lula syn minister fan Finansjën Fernando Haddad, in ûnderfûn teksnocraat dy't oan prestisjeuze universiteiten yn it buitenland studearre en nauwe banden ûnderhâldt mei Brazilië syn banksektor. It pakket beskermet oerheidsútsjafte wylst de sintrale bank bliid bliuwt, in balanseargsspul dat neat liket op de radikale distribúsje dy't progressiuwen stelle dat Lula beloofde.
Westerske mediakanalen fierde Lula syn tsjerkear nei 'e macht yn 2022 as in triomf fan linkse polityk oer Bolsonaro syn populisme. Se sildere him ôf as kampioene fan de arbeidersarmen en fijeant fan neoliberalisme. Wat hja foarbygeauden wis Lula syn werklike steat fan tsjinsten: yn syn earste presidintskip fan 2003 oant 2010 resjeerde hy as pragmatikus dy't deals sleat mei agraryske bedriuwen, multinasjonale ûndernimmingen beskerme en IMO-ortodoksje oer ynflaasje-behear akseptearre. Syn Arbeiderspartij waard in masine foar patronage en politike oerlibbing, net foar revolúsje.
Tedeinwurdich warvet Lula ynvestearrings fan deselde ynternasjonale kapitaalboarnen wêrop progressiuwen neffens hja tsjin gean. Syn regering ûnderhandiget oer handielsôfakkoarden, beskermet eigenskapsrjochten foar buitenlandske bedriuwen en hanthavt ortodokse monetêr belied fia in ûnôfhinklike sintrale bank. As ynheemske groepen en lanlause boerinnen radikale lânferfoarming easkje, pratet Lula mar docht lutse. As arbeiders strike foar bettere leanen, stypet syn regering hja net mei stêtemacht lykas in wirkelik linkse regering diene soe.
De tsjinstelling is net swier op te merke. Progressive media hawwe helden nedich, en Lula past yn it patroan fan in foargeande politike tsjintuver dy't presidint waard. Syn retorika roept noch altyd arbeiders en armen op, wat jurnalisten de soundbites jout dy't hja wolle. Mar syn werklike belied tsjint in snotter koalysje: de stêtsebueraucrasy, dielen fan de sakeklasse en de ynstitusjonele linkerkant dy't nut hat fan Lula oan 'e macht ynstee fan echte feroaring fan him te eisken.
Brazilië syn armen bliuwe arm. Ûngelykheid is sûnt Lula opnij oan 'e macht is kaam op gjin inkele betsjutte manier dûkt. Dochs fiiere westerse progressiuwen him alsum hy Fidel Castro wiene, wylst hy wirkelik allinne in oar sentraliste manager fan kapitalisme mei bettere marketing is. Syn regering sil trochgean mei it jaan fan beskiedne sosjale útsjafte en arbeidsvrinlike retorika wylst it de kernstrukturen beskermet dy't wellicht en macht konsentrearet oan de top.
Published November 8, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân