Despite opposition from nearly half of Brazil’s voters, leftist President Dilma Rousseff won re-election on Sunday and will have another four years to try to revive growth in a once-booming economy gone stagnant.
The 66-year-old Rousseff, who was a Marxist guerrilla in her youth, overcame growing dissatisfaction with the economy, poor public services and corruption to narrowly clinch a second term for herself and the fourth in a row for her Workers’ Party.
After a bitter, unpredictable campaign that pitted poorer Brazilians grateful for government anti-poverty programs against those exasperated with a stalled economy, Rousseff must now seek to continue flagship social services even as she tweaks economic policies to restore growth.
Most investors are skeptical that Rousseff can turn around the slumping economy after four years of ineffective industrial policies. Futures contracts for Brazil’s Bovespa stock index expiring in December fell more than 6% on Monday before the Sao Paulo stock exchange opened, while Brazil’s currency slipped 3% to a nearly six-year low.
Still, Rousseff and aides consistently shrug off market pessimism as little more than tantrums by speculators. As her camp celebrated victory late on Sunday, longtime foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia told reporters that investors should relax and “take tranquilizers.”
Speaking to a relieved crowd of supporters in Brasilia, the capital, Rousseff acknowledged the close race and the call for change expressed by many voters.
“I know that I am being sent back to the presidency to make the big changes that Brazilian society demands,” she said after winning the runoff election with 51.6% support.
Her slim, three-point margin over centrist candidate Aecio Neves came largely thanks to gains against inequality and poverty since the Workers’ Party first came to power in 2003.
Using the fruits of a commodity-fueled economic boom in the last decade, Brazil’s government expanded welfare programs that helped lift more than 40 million people from poverty despite the current economic woes.
