President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro traded insults and corruption accusations in their first head-to-head debate on Sunday night, a week before Brazil’s Oct. 25 presidential run-off, BBC News and DW reported.
Bolsonaro, standing for the Liberal Party, won 47% of the vote in the Oct. 4 first round to Lula’s 45.2%, and polls suggest the two are neck and neck, the BBC reported. Since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1988, no candidate who trailed in the first round has gone on to win the run-off, though Lula has told supporters he will “win in extra time.”
Lula called Bolsonaro “a habitual liar, a thug,” alluding to his alleged ties to Rio de Janeiro’s paramilitary groups, and said, “It is striking how the Bolsonaro family is subservient to American interests,” accusing him of conspiring to “hand over” Brazil’s rare earth minerals to the United States, as DW reported.
Bolsonaro, who dismisses the militia allegations as fake news, said it was better to keep his distance “so that my wallet isn’t stolen,” and held up the palm of his hand, on which he had written “CORRUPTO.” Campaigning on an iron-fist approach to crime, he challenged Lula to explain why crime rose during his term. Lula pledged to open his and his family’s financial and phone records to judicial scrutiny and dared his rival to do the same.
Analysts said personal attacks crowded out policy. “The independent voter, who is sometimes against Bolsonaro and sometimes against the Workers’ Party, came out of it with a very negative impression,” said Yuri Sanches of the pollster AtlasIntel. A second and final debate is planned for Friday.
Tens of thousands of supporters of both candidates rallied across Brazil before the debate, DW reported. In São Paulo, Bolsonaro supporters called for the release of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest over a coup attempt.
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