Brazilian President Lula da Silva has sent a constitutional amendment to Congress that would make public transport free on weekends and holidays across the country, including in any city that runs a public transit system. He announced the move on Wednesday, framing it as the logical follow-up to the law he recently secured establishing a 5x2 work schedule in place of the long-standing 6x1 arrangement.
In a post accompanying the announcement, Lula argued that the two policies belong together. Guaranteeing workers two days off each week, he wrote, also means giving people more time to live — to be with family, see friends and enjoy their cities. The proposal now goes to lawmakers, where its fate is uncertain.
The announcement landed two days before a runoff that has tightened sharply. A Quaest survey published Wednesday put challenger Flávio Bolsonaro at 45% of valid votes and Lula at 44%, down from a two-point gap of 46% to 44% in the previous poll. Quaest is among the most closely watched polling firms in Brazil, and Clarin.com reports that the race has grown more dramatic as a result.
Why it matters
The transit proposal ties directly into the central economic argument of Lula's campaign: that his government has improved daily life for working Brazilians through changes to labor rules. The 5x2 schedule was a signature win, and the free-fare plan extends the same pitch to urban mobility. For voters in big metropolitan areas, weekend transit costs are a tangible household expense, and the amendment gives Lula a fresh item to promote in the final hours of the race.
At the same time, the poll numbers suggest the gesture may not be enough on its own. The single-point margin falls within the range where small shifts can decide an election, and the survey indicates that the contest remains effectively tied heading into Sunday.
Fear of a Bolsonaro return edges ahead in Quaest survey
The same Quaest poll asked voters what worries them most, and for the first time in several rounds, more respondents said they feared the Bolsonaro family returning to power than feared a Lula reelection. According to Clarin.com, 44% named a Bolsonaro comeback as their main concern, against 42% who cited another Lula term.
The two fears have traded places repeatedly since Quaest began tracking the question in January. The last time concern about the Bolsonaros led numerically was the August 14 survey, at 45% to 41%. In the seven polls since then, fear of Lula has either led or tied. Wednesday's result reverses that pattern by a narrow margin.
Campaigns converge on the northeast
Both candidates aimed their digital operations at Brazil's northeast, a region that has long voted heavily for Lula's Workers' Party and that both sides see as decisive.
Flávio Bolsonaro released a series of spots on X arguing that the region has not escaped poverty despite two decades of PT governance. One video, drawing on interviews with local residents, cites 36.5 million people without sewage service, 14 million without running water and the country's ten most violent cities. A separate post shared by an allied account carried the message "Don't silence the northeasterners."
Lula answered with a video compiling past remarks by Jair Bolsonaro that he characterized as dismissive of the region or focused only on its poverty. The northeasterners remember, Lula said in the post, and his supporters would defeat the Bolsonaro family on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Flávio Bolsonaro met with popular singers and digital influencers backing his candidacy in Goiás, in a push to extend his reach on social media. The gathering ran into the evening and included figures from the sertanejo music scene, among them Gusttavo Lima, Zezé Di Camargo and Marrone. The candidate told those present that everyone there supported change and that no one could tolerate the current government any longer. His campaign intends to use the stars' large followings by recording and distributing endorsement videos.
Foreign minister accuses Washington of intervening
Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in an interview with the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo that representatives of Donald Trump's administration took part in Brazil's campaign. Vieira said the United States took positions and allowed itself to be photographed, and that the press was now full of articles about manipulated algorithms in messaging. Brazilians, he said, will show at the ballot box what they want and what they regard as interference.
Vieira also criticized Flávio Bolsonaro's proposal to set up a transition group, if elected, to coordinate any new Brazilian government's positions with the United States. The minister called the idea terrible and said nothing like it had occurred in his 50 years of diplomatic work. Transitions, he noted, normally happen between an outgoing and an incoming government to ensure the handover — doing so with a foreign country, he asked, would amount to early surrender. He called it a very bad signal.
What to watch
With the runoff set for Sunday, the final Quaest margin and the size of turnout in the northeast will be the numbers to watch, along with any movement in Congress on the free-fare amendment before voters go to the polls.
