The Albany Gazette - Brazilian lawmaker Andre Janones, Lula's social media 'general'

Sporting a national football jersey, the 42-year-old lawmaker beamed as he embraced Lula on stage.

Janones took on a seemingly impossible task as the left reeled from right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro's shock first-round lead: flipping it in Lula's favor.

No presidential candidate in Brazil who lost the first round had gone on to win the runoff since 1989, the first direct election after the end of the country's military dictatorship.

Janones got to work with gusto, drawing on the "Lula's Army" WhatsApp channel he created in April to counter the strong online influence of the political right.

Between the first round on October 4 and the runoff on Sunday, the channel's following ballooned from 60,000 people to almost 11 million.

- 'Blow up Brazil' -

Each selfie video Janones posted had the air of a battle ritual.

"Blow up Brazil!" he would yell, pumping his arm and urging viewers to share the channel's pro-Lula, anti-Bolsonaro content far and wide.

He also advised the 80-year-old president, who promised he would buy his first-ever cellphone if "Lula's Army" reached five million followers.

Janones was by Lula's side when the president unboxed his new device.

"Our army now has a general... It will be the largest democratic army in the world," Janones told him.

Lula acknowledged the younger man's crucial part in defeating Flavio, son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

"He played an exponential role in this campaign in lifting the morale of our troops every day, morning, noon and night," he said from Sao Paulo after winning with 51.8 percent of the vote.

Later, Janones reappeared alongside the leftist leader before a frenzied crowd on Sao Paulo's beloved Paulista Avenue.

"Raise your hand, soldiers of Lula's Army!" he yelled.

"All of us here were part of his army," student Sofia Vaz, 18, told AFP.

"He ordered us to blow things up and we did what he asked."

- Playing for Messi -

Janones has compared Lula to football legend Lionel Messi.

"Just as with the Argentine national team, Messi is still a genius, but he needs the younger players to do the running for him," he said.

The lawmaker, elected in 2019, grew up in a modest family in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, where his mother cleaned homes and his father collected bus fares for a living.

He attributes his successes to Lula's social policies, having won a scholarship before going on to graduate as a lawyer.

- 'Nobody knew who he was' -

Following the first of two debates between Lula and Bolsonaro, Janones suffered a cardiac arrhythmia and went into intensive care, but recovered shortly after.

He alleged several times throughout the campaign that "Lula's Army" was being silenced.

Brazil's electoral court temporarily suspended the channel twice, once following an accusation by Bolsonaro that it was spreading misinformation.

"Nobody knew who he was, and he turned out to be an incredible communicator," said lawyer and Lula voter David Germano, 36.

"Janones is going to be the minister of defense," a young woman joked to her friends during Sao Paulo's raucous celebrations.

(B.Ramirez--TAG)