The rise of a strongman

Implications of Jair Bolsonaro's presidential win

Brazil, the world’s fourth-largest democracy, has a new leader after 63-year-old Jair Bolsonaro, belonging to the Social Liberal Party, inflicted a crushing defeat on his Leftist Workers Party (PT) opponent Fernando Haddad. Mr Bolsonaro received 55 per cent of the votes polled — an outcome that was unimaginable even a year ago — as Brazilian voters were seen to have rejected the “politics-as-usual” scenario and instead punished the PT, which had been in power since 2003, for having failed to deliver on its promises. The PT’s rule ended with two disgraced presidents — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is