I honestly didn’t expect that an election in South America would ever mean much to someone living in West London.

But today’s news that Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva won a historic fourth term as Brazilian president, defeating his far-right opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, restored the faith I desperately needed in humanity.

Initial elections were held on October 4, when Bolsonaro, son of the disgraced former President Jair, edged ahead. 

But given no candidate received more than half of the votes in the first round, a runoff election was held yesterday – and after Lula supporters staged two massive protests in solidarity on Saturday, the incumbent turned the tables and secured his victory.

Meanwhile, Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s long-serving authoritarian leader, has been defeated after a student-led opposition movement protested his government.

In a time when everything feels dark, these two moments are bringing a light back into the world I wasn’t sure was possible. 

Now, I want to see the UK follow suit – to fight back against the far-right and realise that not only can elections be one from the left, they should. 

I need Andy Burnham to pay attention to what is happening around the world. 

And I hope Nigel Farage is watching his back, because his global bedfellows have taken a hell of a beating. 

Last night’s results felt like a seismic shift in global politics, and it makes me optimistic for the future, and I don’t want that hope to be extinguished at home. 

With Starmer out, I did feel a glimmer of some hope return to my dejected soul this summer as Burnham took over as leader of the Labour Party. 

With the former Manchester mayor proudly declaring himself a ‘socialist’, I wondered whether the Labour Party would begin to return to its roots.

And I hoped that extreme right movements in Britain, in mainstream politics and on the streets, would be beaten back. 

While polling doesn’t look good for parties like Reform and Restore, parts of the hard right  seem to be as emboldened as ever, with protests against small boats hitting our streets and docks – and figures like Tommy Robinson still a force to be reckoned with.

But Andy Burnham hasn’t yet done enough in reckoning with them.  

I need Burnham to create the hope in us that these young people protesting around the world are seeing.

At the moment, the UK has become an increasingly difficult place for most people to live in. 

Around 21% of the UK population – roughly 14.2 million people – live in relative poverty, anti-migrant hatred has increased across the country and environmental issues are being swept under the rug.

The real issue in the UK obviously isn’t small boats, Muslims or refugees – it’s the hoarding of wealth, the inequity in our institutions and Thatcher’s old ‘divide and rule’ tactic to get us all to fight each other instead of the handful of people who are actually making life hard for us.

We need to have people in place who care about us – more than the amount of money they’re pocketing by fundraising to go out and slash rescue workers’ boats in the Channel Ocean.

Even the US is seeing change. 

After two terms as President, Trump has seen a fall in his approval rating in the latest polls – Americans seem ready to give him a serious bloody nose at the upcoming mid-terms. 

With Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist views becoming increasingly popular, and Abdul El-Sayed becoming a living, breathing repudiation of Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry, the tide is beginning to turn. 

And rightly so, for too long now the US has been a magnet of hatred and xenophobia – belief systems that have no place in civilised society.

People like Trump and Farage should be scared to see what’s happening around the world.

Brazil’s left-wing victory is a blow for the US, who hoped to take power in South America – stopping a domino effect of authoritarian governments taking more global control.

The world is finally rejecting what people like Farage have to offer.

Of course not every candidate is perfect – even the far-left will have its issues, and we’ve seen much of that play out in our media.

But I would rather a socialist who has saved the Amazon rainforest, over an orange man who just referred to his biggest showbiz fan Nicki Minaj as having a ‘great ass.’

I want to see more people who care about saving the world, than those who only seem to care about how much they can enrich themselves. 

With more student protests happening around the world, maybe we’ll see a change across more countries.

And I can only hope that the UK opens its eyes, and Burnham does the right thing.

Because if change doesn’t come from within the corridors of power, it will be brought about by those of us on the streets. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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