Bolsonaro, Lula clash in stormy head-to-head Brazil debate

Bloomberg

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro had their first in-person confrontation of Brazil’s election campaign during a stormy televised debate that set the tone of the contest with five weeks to go.
The two front-runners didn’t waste any time before attacking each other, with Bolsonaro branding Lula’s government “the most corrupt in history” and his rival accusing the president of “destroying Brazil.” Ciro Gomes and Simone Tebet, two other presidential candidates sharing the stage, also focused most of their attacks on Bolsonaro.
The face-to-face debate organized by Band TV network was one of the main events so far of the campaign for the Oct. 2 election. Yet while Bolsonaro and Lula represent radically different paths for Latin America’s largest economy, the lack of policy specifics or surprises in the almost three-hour long encounter is unlikely to make it a game changer.
Bolsonaro, a 67-year-old former army officer, lost support over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw Brazil record more than 600,000 deaths. Now, however, polls show the economy to be the biggest voter concern by some way.
While Lula, 76, leads all major polls ahead of the first round, his margin over Bolsonaro has been shrinking as the government unleashes stimulus measures including cash stipends for the poor and tax cuts on goods including gasoline. Inflation is also turning the corner, with consumer prices registering its biggest monthly drop since 1980 in July after peaking at more than 12%.
During the debate in Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro lashed out at one of the female journalists acting as a moderator. The move was condemned by the other candidates and put the president on the defensive over his policies for women — a demographic in which he trails by a bigger gap than in the population at large.
When gender equality and women’s issues continued to come up, Bolsonaro defended his government’s record and dismissed the criticisms, saying that “women love me.”
“It was a poor debate in terms of ideas,” said Creomar de Souza, chief executive officer at Dharma Political Risk and Strategy, a Brasilia-based consultancy. “Lula wanted to avoid a confrontational tone trying to pick some support from center-wing voters while Bolsonaro made a speech for his own supporters but lost support and engagement when he attacked a female journalist.”
If the event was short on policy, it didn’t lack drama. Before the debate started, security for Lula and Bolsonaro asked that they not stand next to each other, as had been planned. A tussle broke out between advisers of the two camps. The men— Ricardo Salles, a former environment minister, and ex-presidential candidate Andre Janones — had to be separated by security staff, according to videos posted on social media.
A poll by Instituto FSB Pesquisa released by Banco BTG Pactual SA showed Lula with 43% vote intention, followed by Bolsonaro with 36%, Gomes with 9% and Tebet at 4%.