“Liar”, “delinquent”, “thief”, “element”, “insane”, “abortionist” were some of the adjectives thrown like darts between President Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da SIlva in the tense final debate on the Globo television channel before Sunday’s ballot.
Lula, favorite in the polls and winner of the first round, was calmer and with a less aggressive profilesearching and inquiring his rival about his government programs, while Bolsonaro chose to reheat old controversies trying to reduce the difference of six million votes.
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“We are talking about a liar who has told 6,489 lies in his government, he is a provocateur who has nothing real,” Lula assured. “I ask for your vote to restore democracy in this country,” stressed the former president, who argued that Bolsonaro’s Brazil is an international pariah “more isolated than Cuba.”
In a fury, Bolsonaro asked for the vote for “new federal deputy mandate”.
The debate found two contenders at different speeds: Bolsonaro throwing messy blows and without much destination during the first two hours and Lula winning the center of the ringwith more calm and emphasizing the behavior of respect for the presidential investiture.
At one point in the debate, Lula brought up the issue of abortion with a shelving for Bolsonaro, who has turned his campaign into a sort of neo-Pentecostal evangelist glossary. She reminded him of a speech in which she defended Citotec, an abortion pill, in a speech to Congress. “That was 30 years ago, Luiz Inácio,” she replied.
“You are an abortionist, your women’s ministers were, the PT is an abortionist,” Bolsonaro shoutedwhich seemed to slip on the bright blue and gray “sand” mounted by TV Globo. Lula said he is against abortion and that his wife Janja is too.
In an attempt to neutralize Bolsonaro’s popularity among those over 60, Lula devoted part of his speech to the drastic reduction in pensions with the 2019 pension reform led by the team.
“We are talking about a liar who has told 6,489 lies in his government, he is a provocateur who has nothing real”lula da silva
Bolsonaro refused to answer why he froze the minimum wage in his four years in government. Contrary to the budget sent to Congress for 2023, Bolsonaro said that he will increase the minimum wage, in an unpublished statement and never defended by the Ministry of Economy.
Bolsonaro questioned the data on people going hungry in the country and Lula assured that “there has only been prosperity for the presidential family in the last 4 years.”
The current president manipulated data on the environment and maintained that the Lula government cut down more of the Amazon jungle than in his administration, in addition to recalling the corruption scandals of the PT governments.
Lula had to clarify several times that the proceedings against him have expired and he was acquitted.
The former president cornered Bolsonaro several times when he asked him why he reduced the health budget and that of policies to reduce violence against women.
In the only moment of tension reduction, the topic was Viagra, a remedy against male sexual impotence.
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva questioned the purchase of 35,000 Viagra tablets by the Armed Forces and the termination of a program of diapers for the elderly, in the third block of the presidential debate on TV Globo before Sunday’s ballot.
Bolsonaro responded that Viagra, a drug prescribed for male sexual dysfunction, is a drug used to treat the prostate and provoked his rival: “Do you take Viagra?”
The most exchanged word was “liar” in the debate between the most popular leaders of Brazil.
The far-right maintained that he is a “victim” of the television system and the Superior Electoral Court. Lula dominated the scene most of the time, above all belittling fake news or Bolsonaro’s aggressions, asking the head of state’s team to “attend to him” because he is “unbalanced.”
At one point, Bolsonaro called Lula to stay by his side discussing.
I don’t want to be by your side, replied the favorite to win the elections this Sunday.
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