Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
From lathe to presidency
Lifted millions out of poverty through targeted welfare.
Reformist Social DemocratOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Social Democrat hall →- Role
- President
- Era
- b. 1945
- Region
- Brazil
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- −50 · −22 · +58
§ Where Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stands
3 axesLula pursues redistribution within a market economy. His first government kept inflation targets and primary budget surpluses, as promised in his 2002 Letter to the Brazilian People, while creating Bolsa Família in 2003, which pays poor families on condition that their children attend school and are vaccinated. He also raised the minimum wage well above inflation and used state banks and Petrobras to drive investment.
A union leader who fought the military regime through strikes, Lula has pursued power through elections and coalition-building in Brazil's fragmented Congress, accepting three presidential defeats and contesting his 2018 disqualification through the courts. After the 8 January 2023 riots in Brasília he rallied Congress and the judiciary behind the constitutional order. His coalition management was tarnished by the 2005 mensalão scheme, in which party leaders paid legislators for support.
Lula's politics centre on the poor, the north-east and Afro-Brazilians. His governments created a secretariat for racial equality in 2003 and the PROUNI university scholarship programme in 2004, and backed racial quotas in federal universities, which became law in 2012 under his successor, Dilma Rousseff. On abortion he has been cautious, mindful of Brazil's religious electorate.
How close are you to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?
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§ The story
LivingLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva (born 1945) is a Brazilian politician who was president from 2003 to 2010 and began a third term in 2023. Born into a poor family in Pernambuco in the north-east, he migrated to São Paulo state as a child, left school early and became a lathe operator, losing a finger in a factory accident. As leader of the metalworkers' union of São Bernardo do Campo he led the strikes of 1978–80 that challenged the military regime, and in 1980 he co-founded the Workers' Party (PT).
After losing three presidential elections, Lula won in 2002 and 2006. His governments combined orthodox macroeconomic policy with the Bolsa Família cash-transfer programme and real rises in the minimum wage, and tens of millions of Brazilians left poverty during the commodity boom. His party was shaken by the 2005 mensalão vote-buying scandal, and in 2017 he was convicted of corruption in the Car Wash investigation and jailed for 580 days; in 2021 the Supreme Federal Court annulled the convictions, ruling that the trial court lacked jurisdiction and that judge Sérgio Moro had been biased. He defeated Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.
Notable for
- 01Founded the Workers' Party
- 02Bolsa Família anti-poverty program
- 03Returned to the presidency in 2023
Key works & moments
- 1978Leads metalworkers' strikes in São Paulo's ABC industrial belt, defying the military regime.
- 1980Co-founds the Workers' Party and is briefly jailed under the National Security Law.
- 2002Elected president at his fourth attempt, defeating José Serra.
- 2003Launches Bolsa Família, merging cash-transfer programmes for poor families.
- 2018Jailed after a corruption conviction that the Supreme Federal Court later annuls.
- 2022Defeats Jair Bolsonaro and returns to the presidency in January 2023.
§ Minds closest to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
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§ Also in the Social Democrat hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Lula da Silva's political ideology?
Lula is a centre-left labour politician and the founding leader of Brazil's Workers' Party: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Social Democrat. Economically he sits left of centre (−50), pairing fiscal and inflation discipline with Bolsa Família cash transfers and a rising minimum wage. On governance he is a democratic reformer (−22) who has pursued power through elections and coalitions. Socially he is progressive (+58), focused on poverty, racial inclusion and access to education.
Is Lula left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing, from the moderate, reformist end. Lula came out of the militant union movement and founded the socialist-leaning Workers' Party, but in office he governed as a pragmatist: he reassured markets with his 2002 Letter to the Brazilian People, kept inflation targets and allied with centrist parties. His defining policies of cash transfers, minimum-wage rises and wider access to university are classic social democracy rather than socialism, and abroad he has pursued a non-aligned foreign policy.
Why was Lula jailed?
Because in 2017 judge Sérgio Moro convicted him of corruption and money laundering in the Car Wash investigation, finding that a construction company had given him a beachfront apartment in Guarujá in exchange for favours. An appeals court upheld the verdict, and he was jailed from April 2018 to November 2019, which also barred him from the 2018 election. In 2021 the Supreme Federal Court annulled his convictions, ruling that the Curitiba court lacked jurisdiction and that Moro, who became Bolsonaro's justice minister, had acted with bias. Lula has always denied wrongdoing.
Which minds are closest to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are Olof Palme (98% alike), Michael Manley (97% alike) and Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (97% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (6% alike).