“Big shoes to fill” for first female president of Brazil

Brazil has elected its first female president, Dilma Rousseff. Like the extremely popular ex-leader Lula da Silva, who nominated her, she promises to tackle poverty and put gender equality as her number one priority.

Rousseff defeated her main rival Jose Serra with 56 percent of the vote during the election's second round.Nikolas Kozloff, an author and expert on South American politics, foresees a further consolidation of economic achievements as well as political institutions.“She did hold a Cabinet-level position of energy minister under Lula, and she served as the chief of staff, so I think the expectation is that she will continue the energy boom that we had in recent years,” Kozloff told RT.

However, Mark Weisbrot from the Center for Economic and Policy Research is cautious, as Rousseff has big shoes to fill.“Brazil has done enormously better in the last eight years under Lula than it had in the previous eight years. The economy grew by 23%, compared to 3.5% previously,” Weisbrot told RT.