Brazil’s two main presidential contenders, Jair Bolsonaro and Lula, blamed each other for all of the country’s ills on Sunday in their first face-to-face telephone battle ahead of the Oct. 2 election.
The two rivals, central figures in Brazil’s recent history, faced off in public for the first time.
“His government was the most corrupt in the history of Brazil,” the outgoing far-right president lashed out at the poll favorite.
The person concerned, 76 years old, countered the claim by defending the account of his terms of office (2003-2010) especially in terms of social reforms and the improvement of the economic situation of millions of his fellow citizens. For Lula, Mr Bolsonaro, 67, is “going to destroy” Latin America’s biggest country.
The two candidates have repeatedly accused each other of lying.
In the first part of the debate, which was expected to last about three hours, Lula focused his interventions on the defense of the environment and especially the Amazon rainforest.
As for Jair Bolsonaro, he told reporters before the face-to-face meeting that he did not think he would be embarrassed by meeting his center-left predecessor and that he was “not going to shake the hand” of the “thief” — referring to the scandals of corruption surrounding the state-owned oil company, Petrobras.
Lula leads the race, with 47% of voting intentions, compared to 32% for the outgoing president, according to a recent poll by the Datafolha institute. Other surveys give the former trade unionist less of a lead.
In addition to the two favorites, the organizers of the pre-election debate invited four other candidates, among them the center-left former finance minister Siru Gomes and the centrist senator Simone Tembet, respectively in third and fourth place in the polls.
In 2018, the year he won the presidential election, Mr. Bolsonaro had only participated in the first two telefights. A month before the first round, he was attacked with a knife by a mentally disturbed person during a campaign rally and, after undergoing surgery, did not participate in a debate again.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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