Before the run in Brazil: Fierce TV battle between Bolsonaro and Lula

Ahead of Brazil’s presidential runoff, incumbent President Bolsonaro and challenger Lula hurled harsh accusations at each other in a televised debate. They falsely accused each other.

Two weeks before Brazil’s presidential runoff, right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and left-leaning candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva battled it out in a televised debate. During a televised battle Sunday evening on Brazilian broadcaster TV Banderantes, the candidates focused on topics perceived as each other’s Achilles’ heel: Lula’s take on Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the incumbent recalling corruption scandals surrounding the Workers’ Party. .

Harsh criticism of the incumbent

“Your negligence led to the death of 680,000 people, more than half of whom could have been saved,” former president Lula said, accusing Bolsonaro of “failures” in handling the coronavirus pandemic. He added: “No government in the world has played with epidemics and death. Don’t you carry some of the suffering of Brazilians on your shoulders?” Lula also called Bolsonaro, 67, the “king of fake news”.

During Lula’s two terms as head of state between 2003 and 2010, Bolsonaro accused the country of rampant corruption and his record as president was “disgraceful”: Lula “has done nothing but spend public money for Brazil and it’s in the pockets of you and your friends,” he said. said. He was a “national disgrace”. Lula spent 19 months in prison on charges of corruption and money laundering, a sentence later overturned by Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Election campaigning is like a mud fight

Both candidates accused each other of lying and disinformation. The election campaign in Brazil, already characterized by smear campaigns and aggressive verbal disputes, has increasingly resembled a mudslinging since the first round of voting. Lula’s camp in particular has resorted to tactics recently adopted by the far right: the leftist camp dug up old videos of Bolsonaro events and extracted personal quotes from them, linking Bolsonaro to Freemasonry and cannibalism.

In the latest attack, Bolsonaro was linked to pedophilia. Lula’s campaign camp on Saturday described the president as a “depraved criminal” and was “disgusted” by the head of state’s statements in an interview with a YouTube channel on Friday: where Bolsonaro talked about a motorcycle ride through the slums of Brasilia. He observes a group of underage girls from Venezuela – the head of state suggests there is sexual chemistry (“pinto um clima”) in the air. He asked to see the girls’ house. Bolsonaro accused young women of prostitution. However, according to media reports, they were participants in a community program that trained them as hairdressers.

Methods in question

Bolsonaro, who was in Sao Paulo for a televised debate, said the past 24 hours since the attacks had been “the worst of my life”. Lula did not raise the issue during the debate, but wore a campaign pin against child abuse on her lapel.

In First round of voting on October 2 Lula was leading with 48 percent of the vote over Bolsonaro, who got 43 percent. With no strong candidate able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, the final decision will be made in a run-off election on October 30. Polls continue to see Lula as the favorite, but his lead has narrowed significantly. Days before the second election, he and Bolsonaro are due to meet in another televised showdown.