text: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), also known as Lula da Silva or simply Lula, is a Brazilian politician who is the 39th and current president of Brazil since 2023. A member of the Workers' Party, Lula was also the 35th president from 2003 to 2011. He also holds the presidency of the G20 since 2023.
  Lula quit school after second grade to work, and did not learn to read until he was ten years old. As a teenager, he worked as a metalworker and became a trade unionist. Between 1978 and 1980 he led workers' strikes during Brazil's military dictatorship, and in 1980 he helped start the Workers' Party during Brazil's political opening. Lula was one of the leaders of the 1984 Diretas Já movement, which demanded direct elections. In 1986, he was elected a federal deputy in the state of São Paulo. He ran for president in 1989, but lost in the second round. He went on to also lose two other presidential elections, both in 1994, and then in 1998. He finally became president in  2002, in a runoff. In 2006, he was re-elected in the second round.