Friday, March 29

“Unbalanced” and “bandit”, the crossing of grievances in the last debate between Lula and Bolsonaro


Since his arrival at the TV Globo studio in Jacarepaguá, west of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, showed himself with a restrained profile, unfriendly but courteous. The journalist who was waiting for him asked him the usual question: “What do you expect from this debate?” The president limited himself to responding, with cold courtesy: “I just want to expose the lies of the other side.” He was referring to his opponent, Lula da Silva, in this way, but he was careful to avoid the insults of previous debates.

Lula da Silva defeats Bolsonaro in the Brazilian elections but they will have to face each other in the second round

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Along with his two campaign advisers, Fabio Wajngarten and Communications Minister Fabio Faria, Bolsonaro was also accompanied by his most recent close ally: former judge Sergio Moro, the Lava Jato case instructor who convicted Lula and later accepted the Ministry of Justice during the first year of the Bolsonarista government. In April 2020 he resigned from the post, disgusted with the manipulation of the Federal Police exercised at that time by the head of state. He now he has returned to the fold and since the previous debate he does not abandon his boss for a moment. In the media they speculate that the presence of the former magistrate could exert a negative influence on Lula.

The exmandatario, who governed between 2003 and 2010, appeared in the studies 15 minutes later. He was accompanied by his vice-presidential candidate, Geraldo Alkmin; his wife, Janja; and the two most recent allies of his: the senator and candidate in the first round Simone Tebet and the deputy Marina Silva. Lula exhibited, at the time of entering the station, an image in the purest presidential style, dressed in an elegant blue suit and neatly combed. “What is the message that he wants to leave in this debate?” The press asked him. “The first message is that the Brazilian people have hope and turn out to vote. And the second is to show him that this country has a future if it is well governed. I governed Brazil at a time when it became the sixth world economic power. I want to reset that,” he replied.

The Bolsonaro candidate received a message of “good wishes” from former United States President Donald Trump shortly before the formal start. On Twitter, and for the world, the conservative from the Republican Party wrote: “This Sunday is a great day for Brazil and for the world. A great highly respected leader who is also a man with a big heart, President Jair Bolsonaro, is running for his re-election. His adversary Lulu (sic) is a radical left lunatic who can destroy his country.”

Both the Planalto tenant and his entourage would have liked to postpone the date of this second round so that it would take place after the second-term elections in the United States. In the environment of Bolsonarist politicians, they judge that “Trumpism” has every chance of succeeding on November 8; That is why they speculated that if the second round was postponed until after that victory, they would achieve the momentum that they believe they lack today to win the re-election trophy.

Bolsonaro followed the same script of previous debates. He insisted that the Supreme Court (Supreme Federal Court, STF) had annulled all the trials against Lula because the former president “has a friend in the Federal Supreme Court.” He insisted: “Lula, you were not acquitted. only absolved you [William] Bonner”, he said in reference to the TV Globo presenter in charge of leading the debate. “He is the one who is going to repeat here that you were acquitted,” he insisted. And he added: “I think that Bonner is going to be indicated in a possible government of yours to be minister of the STF. You were declared innocent by a friend of yours. You are nothing but a bandit.”

The PT leader did not hesitate to reply: “My opponent is unbalanced. I am saying that the only liar here is President Bolsonaro, who has lied 6,498 times. [a través fake news] And on TV commercials alone we’ve gotten 60 RRTs for their lies.” Lula deliberately chose, after the attacks, not to approach Bolsonaro when she demanded, in a condescending manner, that she stay by her side. “I don’t want to be close to you,” the former president replied.

What should have been a confrontation of projects thus became an exhibition of motorized personal aggression, especially by Bolsonaro. Roberto Toledo, one of the analysts summoned by the television station, evaluated that Lula had won in the first two blocks. Thais Oyama, a columnist who has been following the elections in Brazil for a long time, judged that the debate “became almost childish, with one accusing the other of being a liar.” “But Lula won,” she said. Accordingly, the expert Alberto Bombig judged that there were “neither ideas nor proposals”: ​​“It is a dialogue of the deaf, but Bolsonaro seems more nervous; he was left visibly more lost”.



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