The first debate between Bolsonaro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who are competing in a runoff to determine Brazil’s next president, featured attacks and accusations of fake news, corruption and the mismanagement of the pandemic.
At the start, former President Lula da Silva recalled that despite having 3% of the world’s population, Brazil had recorded 11% of deaths due to Covid-19, trying to expose what he considered the government’s poor public health management. By Bolsonaro.
Lula da Silva called her opponent the “king of fake news” and the “king of stupidity” and said Bolsonaro “delayed the vaccine”. [que] Caused 600,000 deaths, over half could have been saved.”
Denying accusations of mismanagement and coldness in the face of the suffering of affected Brazilians, Bolsonaro said he was “moved by every death,” “more than 500 million” during his time. [doses de] Vaccines” and Brazil is “the most vaccinated country in the world”.
Bolsonaro again discredited public recommendations to use drugs without proven effectiveness to fight the infection, such as chloroquine, accusing doctors of having the right to prescribe drugs “with or without scientific evidence.”
The current president accused Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party of being linked to leaders of organized crime groups in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and joked about an event his campaign held in one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas. The Complexo do Alemao.
“You are friends with gangsters. In the favela you don’t have police on your side, only drug dealers,” Bolsonaro fired at Lula da Silva, in one of the most tense moments of the first round of debates.
Lula da Silva negotiated connections to organized crime, visiting the Complexo do Alemão, where he held only working people, and promising to return to a favela in Rio de Janeiro.
A video of an interview in which Bolsonaro made inappropriate comments about visiting young Venezuelans in a favela, seen by Lula da Silva’s supporters as proof of the president’s links to pedophilia, was hotly debated over the weekend, with the president himself citing it. He said he was the target of fake news and false claims.
Bolsonaro was referring to the decision by the head of the Supreme Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered Lula da Silva’s campaign to remove a video about the controversy.
Early on Sunday, Lula da Silva said Bolsonaro had to go live on social media to explain why he lied when he linked young Venezuelans to prostitution, but recalled that he used the ‘pin’ from a campaign against sex abuse. Exploitation of children and adolescents in Brazil.
Both Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro have said they are not interested in increasing the number of judges at the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
It was one of the most controversial topics in the Brazilian election, as Bolsonaro supporters unveiled a plan to increase the number of STF judges, which much of Brazilian public opinion saw as a threat and an attempt to corral the judiciary. Happened in Hungary and Venezuela.
“We already had the experience of a dictatorship that replaced the Supreme Court […] “It is not democratic for a President to want to keep Supreme Court ministers as friends,” Lula said.
“On my part, the commitment has been made, there will be no proposal,” Bolsonaro said.
As both responded to allegations of corruption and misappropriation of public funds in exchange for support from parliamentarians, journalists questioned the relationship they wanted to maintain with the Congress, with the candidates deploying different strategies.
The current president has said he is not responsible for the secret budget, a practice initiated by his administration that allows executive powers to be used in exchange for votes in Congress without providing transparency. He is being investigated on suspicion of corruption.
“If I buy [um deputado], he will vote with me. Budget is created [pelo deputado] Rodrigo Maya, I wish it was in my hands. “If they don’t vote with me, I will never pay this group,” Bolsonaro said.
Former President Lula da Silva, whose first government was involved in a vote-buying scheme known as Mensalao, emphasized the importance of manipulating the Congress elected by the Brazilian people and said he would pass a participatory budget.
“Executive government has only to do with those who have a mandate. I will try to end the secret budget with a participatory budget, I will send the people to give their opinion and say what they really want to do”, proposed the former. President.
Promoted by TV Bandeirantes, Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, UOL portal and TV Cultura, the first debate of the second round of elections consisted of three modules, which included questions from journalists and two moments, 30 minutes each, in which the candidates could debate freely.
Lula and Bolsonaro face off in the second round of the presidential election on October 30.
The latest poll published on Friday shows former union leader Lula da Silva with a five-point lead over Bolsonaro.
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