What challenges await Brazil's Lula in his fourth term as president?

Days before his 81st birthday, the former union leader won Sunday's runoff with 51.7 percent of the vote over 48.2 percent for his right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro. The narrow result confirms the political divide that has split Brazil for a decade and shows that Bolsonarism remains strong, despite its far-right leader's 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup. Here are the main challenges awaiting Lula in his next mandate. Governability As in his current term, Lula will not have a majority in Congress. Legislative elections earlier this month bolstered the right, making Bolsonaro's Liberal Party the leading force with 121 out of 513 deputies and 28 out of 81 senators. To get his proposals through, Lula will depend heavily on the so‑called "Centrao," a bloc of center-right parties that usually backs whoever is in power in exchange for benefits. But negotiating with them is becoming increasingly difficult, according to political scientist Mayra Goulart of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Lawmakers now decide the fate of an ever larger share of the federal budget, she told AFP, giving them "more independence from the executive." Money Economically, "Brazil's three...