Six candidates for the post of Brazilian head of state compete in a TV debate. But the focus is on the duel between the incumbent and his predecessor. Both overwhelm themselves with allegations. And the presenter is not safe from President Bolsonaro’s attacks either.
In their first television debate before the presidential election in Brazil, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his promising rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made massive allegations against each other. In his opening statement, right-wing extremist Bolsonaro called Lula a “thief” and accused the left-leaning ex-president: “His government was the most corrupt in Brazil’s history.”
The Labor Party (PT) politician denied the incumbent’s accusation, stressing that many social reforms had been initiated during his government from 2003 to 2010. But Bolsonaro is now in the process of “destroying” the country, Lula said.
In the first part of the debate, Lula devoted a long time to protecting the environment – especially the Amazon rainforest, the destruction of which, according to data from the Brazilian space agency INPE, had reached a record level in the first half of the year.
Lula was imprisoned between April 2018 and November 2019 following a conviction on corruption charges. In 2021, however, he regained all political rights after Brazil’s Supreme Court annulled the sentences against him due to the court’s lack of jurisdiction. Lula repeatedly stressed that his innocence had been proven. “What do you want to return to? To continue doing the same thing as Petrobras?” asked Bolsonaro, referring to the bribery scandal surrounding the semi-state oil company.
In addition to Bolsonaro and Lula, four more of the 12 presidential candidates took part in the three-hour debate, including ex-Finance Minister Ciro Gomes from the centre-left PDT party and Senator Simone Tebet from the centre-left MDB party.
Incumbent Bolsonaro caused a scandal in the debate when he responded to a question from journalist Vera Magalhaes with massive allegations against her. In her question, Magalhaes said Bolsonaro had spread misinformation about vaccinations against Covid-19.
Bolsonaro said to her, “Vera, you fall asleep thinking about me, you have a kind of crush.” He accused her of “false accusations” and said: “You are a disgrace to Brazilian journalism.” Bolsonaro brushed aside the subsequent accusation of misogyny by another candidate.
Polls put the 76-year-old Lula ahead of Bolsonaro ahead of the first round of elections on October 2nd. According to a survey by the opinion research institute Datafolha, the ex-president can count on 47 percent of the votes, while the 67-year-old incumbent can only count on 32 percent. If none of the candidates wins more than 50 percent of the votes in the first ballot, a runoff will be held on October 30.
