The television cameras brought together the six top candidates for the country’s presidency in the October 2 elections
The allegations of corruption and social assistance to the poor heat up the first debate between the candidates for the presidential election on October 2 in Brazil. The television cameras brought together the six leading candidates, including President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who led the voting intentions and staged the most tense clashes on Sunday evening (beginning Monday in Spain).
From the outset of the debate, Bolsonaro exposed the cases of corruption that had come to light in the government of Lula, whom he considered “the most corrupt in the history of Brazil”, and on two occasions called the opposition leader ‘ex-victim’. The current president was a reminder of Lula’s nearly two years in prison for two corruption convictions, which were overturned in 2021 due to irregularities in the trials.
Lula said he is “much cleaner” than Bolsonaro because he was “tried and declared innocent by the Supreme Court and by the UN” and assured that “he was only imprisoned for political reasons” so that Bolsonaro could win the election.
Other candidates also recalled the corruption of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) and also pointed to alleged irregularities at the moment, most notably an attempt to divert public funds for the purchase of vaccines against Covid-19.
The fight against hunger, which affects 33 million people in Brazil, sparked another hard exchange between Lula and Bolsonaro over income-sharing programs. The current president promised to maintain the subsidies his government began providing to the poor this month in the midst of the election campaign, and Lula accused him of “lying” because the aid is not included in the general budgets for 2023.
One moment that turned the debate was a personal attack by Bolsonaro on a journalist for a question she put to another candidate about vaccines against Covid-19. The current head of the Brasilia Executive, known for his macho outbursts, told reporter Vera Magalhaes that he is “a disgrace to journalism” and suggested he has “a passion” for him.
The offenses against the journalist provoked the reaction of several rival candidates, who from then on reproached the leader of the far right for asking women for respect.
In his last speech, Bolsonaro brought out Lula’s political affinities with other Latin American left-wing leaders and stated that he would apply the same policy in Brazil. “The former prisoner supported Chavez, he supported Maduro. And look how Venezuela is,” said the president, who also criticized the economic situation in Alberto Fernández’s Argentina.
He also pointed out that Lula supported Gabriel Boric in Chile, who “set the subway on fire”; Gustavo Petro in Colombia, “who wants to release drugs”; and to Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, “who arrests priests and persecutes nuns.”
Bolsonaro said goodbye with his campaign slogan “God, homeland, family and freedom”, while Lula alluded to his administration experience: “I know what I’ve done, I know what I’m going to do and that’s why I don’t fall for the easy promise”.
All the polls paint a highly polarized scenario between Lula, who heads a coalition of ten progressive parties, and Bolsonaro, leader of the far right. The polls place Lula as the favorite to win the election, with nearly 45% of intentions to vote, compared to 30% for Bolsonaro.
Source: La Verdad
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