A banner day for democracy. From Eastern Europe: “Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic, a nationalist who has cultivated ties to Donald Trump and Vladmir Putin and has downplayed his country’s 1990s war crimes, conceded defeat in elections Sunday to a slate of candidates backed by a student-led anti-corruption movement.” And in Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil staged a stunning comeback to win re-election, “which ended a string of conservative wins in Latin America cheered on by President Trump.” Trump right-wing ally Flávio Bolsonaro is refusing to accept the results, but that has not dampened celebrations.
A reminder that turnout and social media organizing matter. In Brazil, “more than 128 million Brazilians voted on Sunday, compared to 125 million in the first round,” the New York Times reported. “An intense social media campaign that included a wildly popular channel on WhatsApp, a platform long dominated by Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing movement, played a major role in mobilizing Mr. Lula’s supporters in the final stretch of the race.”
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