Letter from South America: Elections could impact Petrobras policy

The upcoming election pits the right-wing incumbent against a left-wing former president

Brazil will hold presidential elections in October and the left-leaning “pink tide” that has re-emerged on the continent in the last several years seems poised to wash up on Brazilian shores once again. Almost all polls show former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with a commanding lead, in front of the incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro. Although pollsters have been wrong in the past—perhaps most notably with Trump vs Clinton in the US elections in 2016—this time it seems clear that the Brazil voters are willing to give Lula and his PT party another shot at the Planalto Palace. What this will mean for the energy sector in Brazil is still somewhat unclear. Petrobras under Bolsonaro has be