Status: 07/24/2022 9:40 p.m
Elections will be held in Brazil in October. Now both candidates are officially certain – and it is therefore clear that it will be a real choice of direction: the left-wing ex-president Lula against the right-wing populist incumbent Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s head of state Jair Bolsonaro will stand again in the presidential elections in Brazil in autumn. He was officially nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. This will result in a duel between right-wing populist Bolsonaro and left-wing ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil in the fall. Lula was nominated by his Labor Party PT on Thursday. In polls, Lula is currently well ahead of Bolsonaro.
Fear of violence in the election campaign
Elections will take place in Brazil on October 2nd, with the campaign officially starting on August 16th. After a suspected Bolsonaro supporter recently shot dead a Labor Party official, concerns about increasing violence during the election campaign have grown.
There is also a fear that Bolsonaro might not recognize the election result. The background is, among other things, statements by him with which he had questioned the electronic voting system in Brazil. Critics accuse him of having increased polarization in Brazil with inflammatory statements and false claims in the style of former US President Donald Trump.
Lula’s verdict overturned
This is Lula’s sixth presidential race. He won twice and ruled Brazil from early 2003 to late 2010. Lula’s social programs lifted millions of people out of poverty. Brazil also boomed economically during his tenure. However, corruption also continued to spread in the region’s largest economy.
In 2018, Lula herself was sentenced to prison for corruption and money laundering. The popular politician was therefore unable to take part in the 2018 presidential election, which Bolsonaro won. Last year, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict. Lula got his political rights back – and returned to the political arena soon after.
Ninth party to which Bolsonaro belongs
Bolsonaro is hoping for a tailwind after Congress allowed the government to spend more on social spending in the election year. In the 2018 election campaign, Bolsonaro successfully portrayed himself as an outsider on a crusade for law, order and conservative values.
In order to be able to compete in the election this time, Bolsonaro joined the Liberal Party in November. He had previously tried unsuccessfully to found his own party. It is the ninth party that Bolsonaros has belonged to in his political career since 1988. A candidate for the presidency cannot run without a party in the largest country in Latin America.