Two months before the elections in Brazil, Lula da Silva moves on and Jair Bolsonaro gets involved in fights

Brazil will elect a president on October 2, and polls insist that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has more and more chances against the current head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, who is embroiled with attacks on institutions.

Two months before the elections and facing a campaign that will officially start on August 16 but already shows its aggression, Lula is maintaining all its efforts to consolidate a broad progressive front and even add conservative sectors that have distanced themselves from the conflicts generated. by Bolsonaro and the far right that supports him.

The current president, captain of the army reserve, stuck at a ceiling of 30% of voting intentions, against the 45% held by Lula, remains involved in a disqualification campaign against electronic voting adopted by Brazil in 1996, which it has never been the subject of fraud reports.

However, although Bolsonaro has been elected a deputy five times under this system and also came to power in 2018 through electronic voting, he insists without any evidence that he encourages cheating.

On July 18, the president took his riskiest step smear campaign and he tried to convince some 40 foreign ambassadors of the “suspicion” that, according to him, generates the system.

This attitude has provoked a general repudiation expressed in various acts and documents in “defense of democracy”, also supported by entrepreneurs and bankers who supported Bolsonaro four years ago.

defense of democracy

This Tuesday, these movements were joined by three media entities, which in a joint note condemned intentions to sow suspicion in democracy and expressed their full support for electoral justice and electronic voting.

The document, published by the editors of newspapers and magazines and by the owners of radio and television channels – several times the target of Bolsonaro’s attacks – states that “there is no democracy without freedom of the press” and without “a rule of law based on respect for results. electoral “.

All these posters secretly mention some of them threats made by Bolsonaro, who even hinted that he could “ignore” the poll results, just as the then president of the United States, Donald Trump, his greatest political reference, did in 2020.

On the same Tuesday, Bolsonaro responded to these posters and said those who sign them are “some cheeks”. He has assured that his “fight” of him is for “freedom” and “truth” and has guaranteed that “no one wants a coup”, but he insisted that the military “monitor” the electionsthesis already rejected by the electoral justice.

In addition to disqualifying electronic voting, in an interview with a local radio he again praised “conservative” values, raised the specter of the “hammer and sickle” and cited the “failure” of what he calls “communism” in countries like Argentina and Venezuela.

The challenge of inflation

Beyond the electoral rhetoric, Brazil continues with high inflation, high unemployment rates and growing poverty, which Lula emphasizes in his electoral campaign, evoking the boom experienced during his administration (2003-2010), with growth around 4 % per year.

“This country has grown, it has generated jobs, distributed income, created universities, technical schools, raised wages” and, above all, “it has taken care of the poorest, as a housekeeper should do”, underlined Lula in one of the his last acts. .

On the other side of the campaign, a dozen candidates are still working to present themselves as alternatives to Lula and Bolsonaro, despite none of them achieving 10% approval in the polls.

The one who ranks best is the Labor Ciro Gomes, with 8%, but who has serious difficulties in building alliances outside his political field, to the point that so far he has not found a candidate for the vice-presidency to complete his formula.

Senator Simone Tebet, a candidate of three center-right parties, also suffered, and on Tuesday she finally announced a “100% female” formula with her colleague Senator Mara Gabrilli, to try to improve her intention to vote by 2% and fish among women, who represent 53% of the electorate.

Source: EFE

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