Lula da Silva says he will talk to other forces to get additional votes in runoff against Bolsonaro

Brazilian presidential candidate and former President socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the first round of Brazil’s presidential election with a much smaller margin than predicted, announced today that he would begin a dialogue with other political forces ahead of the Oct. 30 runoff.

“We will have to talk more with the people and the political parties that participated in the elections,” he said in São Paulo after the first round of voting, in which he received 48 percent of the vote.

In comparison, incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had 43 percent.

The Workers’ Party leader recalled that there was always a second round of voting in the elections he won in 2002 and 2006.

“I have always believed that we will win these elections, and I want to tell you that we will win these elections. The second round is just an extension,” Lula said.

He added that one of the priorities of his campaign for the second round would be dialogue with the parties that were eliminated in the first round, such as the Movement for Brazilian Democracy of Simone Tebet and the Brazilian Democratic Party of Ciro Gomes.

Lula da Silva said that the state of São Paulo, the country’s most populous and most prosperous place, “will be the big stage of the second round,” as Bolsonaro candidate Tarcisio de Freitas of the Republicans and Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party will face off in the runoff.

The former president assured that the campaign for the second round would also be an “opportunity for a personal debate” with Bolsonaro.