Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the favorite in October’s presidential elections, has launched a new attack on Jair Bolsonaro Brazil, emphasizing that he is worse than Donald Trump. In fact, he called him “more rude”, “less civilized” and “a bad impression” of the former US president.
Bolsonaro, nostalgic for the period of military dictatorship, has for years been an avowed admirer of the 45th US president and some they have dubbed him “Trump of the tropics”. The two were ideological allies and, at the time they came to power, the relationship between the two states became dramatically closer.
Instead, Brazil’s head of state was among the latest world leaders to congratulate Joe Biden on his election victory in 2020. Relations between Brasilia and Washington have grown much colder since he left the White House in 2021.
Many fear that Mr Bolsonaro will copy Donald Trump if he loses the election, the first round of which takes place on October 2, refusing to accept his defeat by Lula. For some time now, the head of state has made unsubstantiated claims of fraud and claims that the electronic voting system is not reliable, raising concerns about the outbreak of an institutional crisis.
A few days ago, Mr. Trump expressed his “full support” for Mr. Bolsonaro, who he said has done an “amazing job.”
Addressing journalists, Lula decided that the world is better when people like Mr. Bolsonaro and Trump. “The world is already suffering a lot,” he noted, adding that he would have preferred if his opponent had preferred to copy other US presidents, such as two of Donald Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Mr Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
As political tension continues to rise in Brazil, police said yesterday that a 24-year-old supporter of the 67-year-old head of state stabbed to death a 42-year-old supporter of the 76-year-old Lula. In July, a similar episode was recorded.
The difference remains in double digits
The former president of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silvamaintains an 11 percentage point lead over the incumbent head of state ahead of the first round of presidential elections on October 2, but far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, 67, has narrowed it by a further two points, according to a poll by the report institute Datafolha.
Specifically, Lula is credited with 45% of voting intentions (unchanged from the previous version of the survey, on September 1), while Mr. Bolsonaro increased his percentage to 34% (+2%).
The former president’s lead over the incumbent, which stood at 21 points in May, has not stopped shrinking. It reached 29 units in December.
Should a run-off be held on October 30, Lula will prevail, securing 53% of the vote to the Brazilian far-right leader’s 39%. The centre-left leader’s lead ahead of a second round fell by one point in a week, from 15 to 14.
The approval and disapproval ratings of Mr. Bolsonaro’s job as president remained unchanged compared to last week (31% and 42% respectively).
The Datafolia poll was conducted using the method of personal interviews among a representative sample of 2,676 voters on September 8 and 9. The margin of statistical error is ±2%.
Source: News Beast
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