Brazil’s head of state Jair Bolsonaro and his most promising challenger, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have met head-to-head for the first time in the election campaign. In a debate broadcast live on television, radio and the Internet, the two politicians, together with four other candidates, had to answer questions from journalists and their competitors on Sunday evening.
The show, which several media houses organized in cooperation, was awaited with great excitement. It took place in a studio in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, about a month before the October 2nd elections. The election is considered trend-setting and the mood in the country is extremely tense. Currently, left-wing ex-president Lula da Silva of Brazil’s Labor Party PT is in the polls with 47 percent of the votes ahead of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, for whom only 32 percent of those polled want to vote. Brazil’s right-wing president has caught up in recent weeks.
The debate was divided into three rounds, with rules and speaking times set in advance. One of the two dominant issues was corruption. Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters accuse the Labor Party and its candidate Lula da Silva of systematic nepotism during their government. Right at the beginning of the show, Brazil’s incumbent president asked his challenger questions about this, forcing him on the defensive.
The second major theme, much more surprising, was women’s rights and male violence. Incumbent Bolsonaro has so far had little support from voters in Brazil. The reasons for this are repeated misogynistic comments by right-wing politicians. Bolsonaro actually made the fight for the votes of the Brazilian women the main task of his campaign. During the debate on Sunday, however, there was an incident in which the head of state insulted a journalist who had asked him a critical question about vaccinations, which Bolsonaro is skeptical about. Brazil’s president then said he believed the journalist was obsessed with him: “You must dream of me at night,” Bolsonaro said, only to add, “You are a disgrace to journalism.” This caused outrage, especially among the candidates and journalists.
After a tense debate that lasted more than three hours, many commentators are certain that Bolsonaro emerged from the duel as the loser. However, commentators also criticize Lula’s performance: he avoided critical questions about corruption during his tenure.
It was uncertain until shortly before the TV duel on Sunday evening that Bolsonaro and Lula would actually come. The two candidates only announced on Saturday that they wanted to compete. The police then tightened the security measures again. The supporters of Bolsonaro and Lula were spatially separated in front of the studio, the candidates themselves entered the studio at different times and were accommodated on different floors before the debate.
The show took place without viewers in the studio. In a separate room for supporters, however, clashes broke out shortly after the start of the broadcast: a member of da Silva’s Labor Party and a former Bolsonaro minister insulted each other and had to be separated by stewards.
If none of the candidates manages to win at least 50 percent of the votes on October 2, there will be a runoff. This is scheduled for October 30th, before that there will be another TV debate on October 9th.