The president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met for the first time live in a presidential debate along with other candidates, the last in which the current president will be seen before the first round on October 2 due to to the negative effects that his performance had.
Lula leads the electoral race with 47% of the intention to vote against 32% for Bolsonaro, according to a survey by the Datafolha Institute published on August 18. Other polls also place him in the lead, although with a smaller advantage.
Organized by a group of Brazilian media, including Rede Bandeirantes and the newspaper Folha de S. PauloFour other candidates also participated in the debate: Ciro Gomes (7%), from the Labor Democratic Party (PDT, center-left); Simone Tebet (2%), of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB, conservative); added to Senator Soraya Thronicke and Felipe D’Avila, both below 1% of voting intentions.
Crossing over corruption in Brazil
“His government was the most corrupt in the history of Brazil,” launched the far-right Bolsonaro. Minutes before the debate, the president had branded Lula a “thief.”
“President Lula, what do you want to return to power for? To continue doing the same things at Petrobras?” asked the president, mentioning that the oil company accumulated a debt of 900,000 million reais (about 180,000 million dollars) in the governments of the Workers’ Party (PT).
Lula, 76 years old, retorted defending the social advances of his governments (2003-2010) and saying that the current president “is destroying” the country.
Bolsonaro’s Misogynist Attacks
In one of the most tense moments, Bolsonaro attacked the journalist Vera Magalhaes for stating in a question that the president spread disinformation about anticovid vaccines.
When asked by the journalist from the Globo group and TV Cultura On vaccination, Bolsonaro reacted: “Vera, you sleep thinking about me, you have some kind of crush… you cannot take sides in a debate like this and make lying accusations about me. You are an embarrassment for Brazilian journalism.”
Later treated as a misogynist by the candidate Simone Tebet, Bolsonaro rejected the criticism and said that it is a “cheap speech”. The senator also said that she was a defender of rapists and torturers of women in the military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro later said that there is a “victimization of women” and defended the conservative agenda against abortion. He even said that he freed the possession of weapons so that peasant women can defend themselves.
The mention of Alberto Fernández in Brazil
Towards the end of the debate, Bolsonaro questioned the relationship Lula’s policy with Argentine President Alberto Fernández.
“Look where Argentina is going. The president of Argentina visited Lula in prison. Today 40 percent of the Argentine population is destitute. Lula supported the candidate who in Chile set the subway on fire, in Colombia the candidate who is in favor of freeing drugs and prisoners. Support Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua persecuting religious people,” said Bolsonaro.
Lullah in white
Another of the moments that did not go unnoticed on social networks were the seconds in which Lula was suddenly silent.
The former president was questioning Bolsonaro about the economic situation in Brazil when he suddenly went blank, only making gestures with his face, but without making a sound, a scene for which he was compared to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who has had moments of confusion at public events.
The president of Brazil took advantage of the situation to laugh and take the floor.
The tension in the debate was especially palpable in the next room, where journalists and politicians followed the debate on a screen. There was a beginning of turmoil during a discussion between the deputy André Janones, an ally of Lula, and the former Minister of the Environment of Bolsonaro Ricardo Salles, who were about to hit each other.
Who won?
According to a Datafolha poll among the undecided after the debate, the winner of the night was Simone Tebet, who led the list for best performance with 43% of the vote.
On the other hand, Bolsonaro had the worst evaluation among undecided voters or those who intend to vote blank. He was pointed out by 51% as the worst candidate of the night, followed by Lula, with 21%.
The qualitative survey was conducted with 64 people divided into 3 virtual rooms. All the participants evaluated the performance of the candidates block by block and in the end they chose who did better.
According to the reaction of these groups, Bolsonaro’s attitude was perceived as “rude” and “machista”, rejection more present in women. According to sources from the candidate’s campaign, Bolsonaro made a mistake that could affect her strategy to improve her position among the female electorate, Magalhaes wrote in The globe.
The same newspaper said today that Bolsonaro decided not to go to any more debates before the first round and that he will only give a few interviews, ideally in podcasts with a large audience and where he would face little confrontation.
*The Grupo de Diarios América (GDA), to which El Nacional belongs, is a leading media network founded in 1991 that promotes democratic values, an independent press and freedom of expression in Latin America through quality journalism for our audiences.