巴西参议院以75:1通过缩短工时法案，成为卢拉10月25日二轮投票前的政治筹码

Brazil’s Senate approved legislation to shorten the workweek without reducing pay, handing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a potential lifeline days ahead of an election he’s trailing.

The Senate voted 75-1 in favor of the bill Wednesday in two rounds of votes, granting final passage to a proposal that will end the so-called “6x1” work schedule under which some 16 million Brazilians work six days a week with one day off.

A former trade unionist, Lula has put the proposal, which will give workers subject to the 6x1 schedule an extra day off, at the center of his efforts to mount a comeback from a first-round upset that turned right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro into the frontrunner ahead of Brazil’s Oct. 25 runoff.

The leftist leader earlier this year made the reduction in weekly working hours — to 40 from 44 — the flagship promise of his campaign. Since finishing behind Bolsonaro in the Oct. 4 first round vote, he’s challenged the senator to back the proposal in social media videos and staged rallies in Sao Paulo and Brasilia where many attendees called for passage of the plan.

Bolsonaro, who previously opposed the bill and sought to delay the vote until after the election, reversed course on Tuesday, saying he’d vote for the legislation because most workers support it.

Investors and prediction markets consider Bolsonaro the favorite, and no candidate who trailed in the first round has won a runoff since Brazil returned to democracy in 1989.

Polls, however, suggest Lula is still within striking distance. Bolsonaro would take 51% of valid votes, excluding blank and null ballots, to Lula’s 49% in the runoff, according to a Quaest survey released Wednesday. Bolsonaro outperformed Quaest’s final poll of the first round by about 2 points, while Lula underperformed by 1.

Read more: Bolsonaro Holds Narrow Lead Over Lula Ahead of Brazil Runoff

Lula hailed the Senate vote, saying the policy is “more than just a change in working hours.”

“It means more time to live, rest, be with family, watch one’s children grow up, take care of oneself, and enjoy life,” he said in a social media post. “This is a victory for workers.”

The question facing Lula is whether broad popular support for the measure will translate into an electoral boost.

Many of his major policies, including new tax exemptions for workers, debt renegotiation initiatives and a program to provide basic medicines at no cost, are overwhelmingly popular.

But the 80-year-old president has struggled to turn that into votes, and segments of his working class base have moved rightward amid labor market shifts, crushing household debt levels and the rising cost of living.

Bolsonaro has continued advocating for an alternative proposal that he argues would provide greater flexibility in labor rules by letting employees negotiate hours with businesses, calling it a better solution than Lula’s.

Business groups have opposed the workweek change, arguing it will increase costs while reducing productivity.

Lula’s government also unveiled a debt relief proposal for so-called microentrepreneurs on Tuesday, targeting voters who typically lean conservative.

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