Some provocations and tensions enamelled, Sunday, October 16, the first televised duel between the outgoing Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his rival, Lula, two weeks before the second round of the presidential election.
If this debate, which lasted less than two hours on the Bandeirantes channel, was heated at times, the tone remained however less aggressive than during those which had taken place before the first round, in the presence of other candidates.
The left-wing ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) showed himself to be more to his advantage at the start, in particular making harsh accusations concerning the management of the Covid-19 pandemic by Mr. Bolsonaro.
“Because of your negligence, more than 680,000 people died of Covid in Brazil, while more than half could have been saved”he thus attacked, referring in particular to the delays in the purchase of vaccines. “Lula, stop lying, a man of your age! »later dropped Jair Bolsonaro, 67. “You are the king of fake news, the king of stupidity”retorted Lula, 76 years old.
“Little Dictator”
But the outgoing head of state then recovered, with spades on the theme of corruption, evoking in particular the vast scandal around the public oil company Petrobras. “Lula, you should go home, enjoy life, rather than come back to the scene of the crime. You are a national disgrace! »launched the far-right leader, castigating the “corruption aplenty in Brazil” during the two mandates of his adversary. He also accused the former steelworker of “not having the slightest concern for the poorest”, congratulating himself on having obtained approval for exceptional expenses amounting to 600 reais (around 97 euros) in the allowances paid to the poorest families. He has also repeatedly claimed that Brazil would meet the same fate as Venezuela if their rival wins.
Lula, for his part, did not hesitate to treat the outgoing president of “little dictator”accusing him in particular of wanting to increase the number of Supreme Court judges to weaken the judiciary.
But the debate, with a new format that allowed the two candidates to move freely in the studio, was also marked by moments of relaxation. After an awkward silence, Jair Bolsonaro, smiling, briefly put his hand on Lula’s shoulder.
In the process, the latter claimed that his opponent was his “bean” before becoming his sworn enemy: “I was shown lots of speeches from you speaking well of me when you were a deputy and I was president. »
Accusations of cannibalism and pedophilia
The electoral campaign was marked by virulent attacks between the candidates and their entourages, who did not hesitate to launch accusations of cannibalism, pedophilia or links with organized crime.
Jair Bolsonaro was castigated on Saturday by the left-wing opposition for having said that a “atmosphere was created” when he had met young underage Venezuelan girls in a poor district of Brasilia on the street, implying that they were prostitutes.
Faced with the deluge of criticism aroused by these statements, the Brazilian president assured that he had “always fought pedophilia”, and specified having entered the house with “ten other people” and in front of CNN cameras. Arriving at the studio for the debate, the far-right president said the past twenty-four hours had been “the most terrible” of his life because of these charges.
A second round which promises to be very disputed
Lula did not clearly mention these accusations but he wore a brooch on his jacket with the logo of a campaign against the sexual abuse of children and adolescents. The president of the Superior Electoral Court on Sunday ordered that videos associating Jair Bolsonaro with pedophilia be removed from major social media platforms, saying the president’s comments were, he said, “taken out of context”.
This second round, scheduled for Sunday, October 30, promises to be highly contested in this extremely polarized election. The two candidates have striven to rally political support and try to convince the undecided by pursuing an intense campaign throughout Brazil.
According to a Datafolha poll published on Friday, Lula would win with 53% of the votes cast against 47% for Jair Bolsonaro. But the various polling institutes have been widely criticized for not having anticipated the high score of the incumbent president, to which they attributed a maximum of 37%, in the first round, when he finally collected 43.2%, against 48, 3% for Lula.