Lula ramps up public handouts in the final stretch of Brazil’s presidential campaign

MercoPress · 21/10/2026, 14:21:00

Some 20 million Brazilian families begin receiving this week a 15% increase in the Bolsa Família social programme, the centrepiece of a broad package of aid, subsidies and tax cuts announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the final stretch of the campaign for Sunday’s runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a statistical tie.