Why elections in Brazil and Serbia matter to the global political order

Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) gestures during a campaign rally in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 3, 2026. [AFP]

Two countries of different sizes held elections on Sunday, with outcomes that reverberated across the world because of an intensifying contest between two forces that use World War II as a mental demarcation line.

First, in reaction to the horrors of war, there was an effort to reject racism and imperialism by embracing the universality of the rule of law and human equality as the best guarantees of world peace and prosperity.