With the former president absent, President Jair Bolsonaro was the only participant in the presidential debate called by various media, including the official air channel SBT, owned by the father-in-law of his Communications Minister, Fabio Faria.
“The other side is hiding by creating false news against me,” Bolsonaro shot at the beginning of the debate, which ended up being an interview with journalists from the organizing media conglomerate, such as CNN Brasil, Terra, Radio Nova Brasil, Radio Eldorado and the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.
Lula and Bolsonaro clashed in last Sunday’s debate on the Bandeirantes channel, but the PT leader warned that this one from SBT and another summoned by the Record channel, owned by the Universal Church, an ally of Bolsonaro and which has a political arm in the ruling Republican party.
Lula and Bolsonaro confirmed that they will participate in the final debate on Friday, October 28, two days before the ballot on Sunday, October 30, at the TV Globo studios.
In Brazil there are no state or academic institutions that organize the debates, but private communication companies that are concessionaires of air channels.
President Bolsonaro confirmed that he will keep Economy Minister Paulo Guedes if he is re-elected.
He also denied the plan revealed by Guedes on Thursday night to unlink pensions and the minimum wage from the update due to inflation, which could suffer cuts, stating that a parliamentary amendment is needed for this.
“I doubt that a parliamentarian would be in favor of this reform,” Bolsonaro said.
The far-right president maintained, when answering questions from journalists, that he stood for re-election to prevent “the return of the left to power”, after having been an activist against re-election, something he promised in 2018.
Bolsonaro called for a unique world experiment in digital communication with a live broadcast on social networks for 22 hours (the number of his Liberal Party) in which figures who support the extreme right, such as the footballer of the Brazilian team and PSG Neymar.
