Sparks flew Sunday as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro accused leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of large corruption – and drew accusations of “destroying Brazil” in return – as they confronted off of their first election debate.
The 2 front-runners, who waited till the final minute to substantiate they might attend the primary televised debate forward of October’s elections, wasted no time in attacking one another in Sao Paulo.
Bolsonaro known as Lula a “thief” in his opening salvo, pummeling the 76-year-old ex- president over the huge “Automobile Wash” corruption scandal centered on state-run oil big Petrobras.
The investigation landed Lula in jail from 2018 to 2019 on controversial corruption fees – annulled by the Supreme Court docket final yr.
“Your authorities was probably the most corrupt in Brazilian historical past,” stated Bolsonaro, 67, rattling off figures from the Petrobras scandal in a rapid-fire assault.
“It was a kleptocracy, a authorities primarily based on theft…. What do you wish to come again to energy for? To do the identical factor to Petrobras once more?”
Lula fired again that Bolsonaro was spreading “untruths” – considered one of a number of exchanges wherein they accused one another of mendacity – and in flip accused the incumbent of trashing the legacy of financial progress and anti-poverty initiatives that Lula left as president.
“This nation has been destroyed,” he stated in his trademark gravelly voice.
Dressing the half in darkish fits and ties – striped blue for Bolsonaro, purple for Lula – the front-runners had quite a few fiery exchanges however hewed to the principles and saved their demeanor comparatively civilized.
However pressure erupted into the open within the press room the place their entourages had been watching. Professional-Lula lawmaker Andre Janones and Bolsonaro’s ex-environment minister, Ricardo Salles, acquired right into a ferocious shouting match and needed to be pulled away from one another.
In all, six of the 12 presidential candidates on the poll had been on the neon-blue-lit stage.
However all eyes within the deeply polarized Latin American big of 213 million folks had been on front-runner Lula, the favored however tarnished ex-metal employee who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, and his nemesis, Bolsonaro, the chief nicknamed the “Tropical Trump,” who’s vying for a come-from-behind win.
Lula leads Bolsonaro by 47 p.c to 32 p.c, in line with the newest ballot from the Datafolha institute.
If no candidate wins greater than 50 p.c of legitimate votes within the first spherical on October 2, the election will go to a run-off on October 30.
