Following Brazil's first-round presidential election on 4 October, the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) has reaffirmed its independent political position while calling for support for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT).
Brazilian Communist Party assesses election results
Edmilson Costa, presidential candidate of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), has called for critical support for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 25 October runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro, while stressing that the PCB will maintain its political and organisational independence.
In a video message released after the first round, Costa thanked workers, supporters and sympathisers in Brazil and abroad who had supported his candidacy, as well as PCB militants who organised the campaign across the country. He said the campaign had received an “extraordinary welcome” in the states visited by the candidate's team.
Costa characterised the PCB's campaign as one that had placed politics at its centre and openly presented the party's proposals for transforming Brazilian society through popular power and socialism. He stressed that the PCB had not concealed its political ideas or abandoned its independence, using the campaign to present workers and young people with an alternative project for Brazil.
Addressing the second round directly, Costa said the PCB's position was clear: “We critically support Lula's candidacy because we consider that now the priority is the defeat of the far right and the defence of democratic freedoms.”
At the same time, Costa stressed that the decision did not represent a change in the PCB's broader political orientation. According to him, critical support for Lula “does not mean abandoning programmatic differences or our political and organisational independence.” The party, he said, would continue to defend its own programme, organise workers and prepare for the political struggles ahead.
Costa concluded by explicitly framing the second round as a vote for Lula in order to defeat fascism: “In this second round, now it is Lula to defeat fascism.” He immediately linked this position to the PCB's longer-term objective of building the struggle for popular power and socialism in Brazil.
Costa's intervention follows the PCB's first-round campaign. The first round ended with Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro advancing to the runoff, scheduled for 25 October.