In the sprawling former industrial city of Osasco, shuttered factories have been replaced by shopping malls and delivery‑app tech firms, now referred to as São Paulo’s “Silicon Valley.”
The city voted for left‑wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022 but backed right‑wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round of this month’s presidential election. Bolsonaro prevailed, and the two will contest a runoff on Sunday. Since 1989, every first‑round winner has been elected president.
Like many of President Lula’s traditional supporters, Gilberto Almazan, head of the local metalworkers’ union, appears visibly concerned.
He recounts Lula’s life story—a boy who grew up in poverty in the Northeast, became a metalworker, then a union leader, and eventually a three‑time president. Yet he openly acknowledges how circumstances have shifted here and how the union movement, once central to Lula’s support base, now feels stuck in the “Middle Ages” and struggles to keep pace.
“We experienced strong deindustrialisation here,” Almazan says. “The composition of the workforce has shifted; service workers now outnumber traditional industrial laborers.”
Metal, chemical, and textile factories have vanished, and five shopping malls have been constructed.
The term “change” is frequently voiced by Bolsonaro supporters in the area. While many cannot cite specific Bolsonaro policies they favor, they express a desire for a different approach, citing frustration with the economy, crime, and political corruption—even though Flávio himself faces similar accusations, which he denies.
