The two main candidates for the Brazilian presidential election have accused each other of lies.
The two main candidates for the presidency of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro and Lula, accused each other of all the ills of the country in a first face-to-face televised Sunday August 28 before the October poll. These two rivals, central figures in the recent history of Brazil, faced each other publicly for the first time.
“His government was the most corrupt in Brazilian history.“Launched against Lula, favorite according to the polls, the outgoing far-right president. The person concerned, 76, replied by defending his government record (2003-2010) in terms of social reforms. According to him, Jair Bolsonaro, 67, “is destroying” the country. The two candidates accused each other of lying.
In the first part of the debate, which should last a total of three hours, Lula focused his speech around the defense of the environment and the Amazon.
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Jair Bolsonaro had told journalists before this meeting that he saw no inconvenience in facing the former left-wing president, but that he “won’t shake hands with a thief“, in reference to the affair of corruption within the public oil company Petrobras.
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Lula favorite of the polls
Lula leads the race in the polls with 47% of voting intentions, against 32% for Jair Bolsonaro, according to the Datafolha institute. Other polls give Lula a lesser lead.
In addition to the two favorites, the organizers of the debate have invited four other candidates, including former finance minister Ciro Gomes of the PDT (centre-left) and Senator Simone Tebet of the MDB (centrist), respectively third and fourth in the polls.
In 2018, the year he won the election, Jair Bolsonaro only participated in the first two debates. A month before the first round, he had been stabbed during a meeting and, after undergoing surgery, had not resumed the debates.