President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used his final first-round campaign event in São Paulo to project confidence while urging supporters not to treat favorable expectations as a substitute for voting.

At the Avenida Paulista rally, Lula said he was convinced he would win in the first round and called on supporters to work until polls closed. He portrayed the avenue as a public space rather than one belonging to a political camp, saying, “Paulista is not the right’s; it belongs to the Brazilian people.”¹ He also said he would return to the site to celebrate if re-elected.

The event carried a practical political tension alongside its symbolic message. A report on the rally said there was an initial dispute between activists and military police over sound trucks and traffic access. The São Paulo Regional Electoral Court had authorized the march, subject to conditions that roads remain unobstructed and organizers follow police and traffic-authority guidance.¹

Lula used the closing speech to frame the election in broader terms, contrasting “democracy and sovereignty” with what he called “barbarism.” He again highlighted national sovereignty, including opposition to foreign interference, and asked campaigners to encourage older voters and undecided young people to go to the polls.¹

A separate account focused less on the confrontation around logistics and more on the crowd’s atmosphere. By late morning, it said, Paulista had filled with thousands of people, including families, teenagers and older supporters. The gathering was marked by “hope and confidence in victory,” but also by a bittersweet feeling that it could be Lula’s last march of this kind.²

Together, the accounts depict a rally designed to show momentum while acknowledging that turnout—not crowd size or campaign optimism—would determine whether Lula’s first-round goal was met.