After the definition of a second round between Lula (PT), who with 98.84% of the votes counted in the first round, has 48.39% of the valid votes, and Jair Bolsonaro, with 43.23%, the two presidential candidates of the Republic spoke to the press this evening (2). Lula made a brief speech in São Paulo while Bolsonaro spoke at the entrance to the Palácio da Alvorada, in Brasília.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks to the press in São Paulo – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
Lula spoke to the press minutes before his opponent. Smiling the entire time during his brief speech, Lula made an optimistic speech about the continuity of the campaign and was excited to have a debate with Jair Bolsonaro without other candidates to divide the attention.
“It will be the first chance to have a tête à tête debate with the President of the Republic. Let’s leave the second round to debate, so we can measure, make comparisons between the Brazil he built and the Brazil we built. Starting tomorrow I’m on campaign. We will have to travel more, hold more rallies, talk more with people and convince Brazilian society of what we are proposing”, said the former president.
Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press at Palácio da Alvorada – Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Agência Brasil
More seriously, Bolsonaro gave an interview to a group of journalists who were waiting for him at the entrance to the President’s Official Residence. For him, it will be four weeks to show the population the negative consequences of social isolation, due to the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine on the country’s economy.
“We have a second half ahead of us, where everything will be the same and we will better show the Brazilian population, especially the most affected class, the consequence of the ‘stay at home, we’ll see the economy later’ policy, the consequence of a war outside and an ideological crisis,” he said. Bolsonaro also intends to use leftist governments in South America, such as Chile and Argentina, in a negative way, stating that “certain changes come for the worse”.
The second round for president and in states where the election was not defined in the first round will take place on October 30th.
