President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) exchanged attacks this Sunday (16) during the first debate in which the two candidates met face to face and in which they tried to get votes 14 days ago. second round of presidential elections.

At the beginning of the debate, organized by a group of journalists and broadcast by a TV channel in Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro and Lula accused each other of lying to Brazilian society.

In the first round, Lula finished ahead with 48.4% of the vote against 43.2% for Bolsonaro. Photo: José Cruz/Agência Brasil/Isac Nobrega/ND

“Lula, stop lying, it’s bad for someone your age,” Bolsonaro, 67, told his 76-year-old opponent.

“You are the king of ‘fake news’, the king of stupidity,” replied Lula, who lambasted Bolsonaro for his handling of the pandemic.

“Their negligence resulted in the deaths of 680,000 people, although half could have been saved,” PT added.

Both candidates, dressed in dark suits and ties – green for Bolsonaro and Brazilian colors for Lula – debated standing up, walking around the stage and barely looking at each other.

Analysts say the debate is a key step in defeating swing voters amid a campaign of vitriolic attacks among candidates and their teams, including allegations of cannibalism, pedophilia and links to organized crime.

In the first round, Lula was ahead with 48.4% of the vote against 43.2% for Bolsonaro, who received a better result than the polls suggested.

Now the leader of the Workers’ Party looks like the favorite with 49% of the vote, five percentage points behind Bolsonaro, who has 44%, according to the Datafolha Institute poll released last Friday (14).

Also, according to Datafolha, 93% of those polled indicated that they had already decided on their vote, while 6% said they would vote empty or invalid, and 2% were undecided.

exchange of accusations

When Bolsonaro arrived at a TV studio in Sao Paulo, he said the last 24 hours had been the “worst” of his life after Lula’s circle accused him of “pedophilia” after claims about Venezuelan minors went viral.

In turn, Lula said that he “expected everything from Bolsonaro” and accused him of “bad faith” with teenagers.

On Saturday (15), Bolsonaro became the focus of criticism from the opposition for statements in which he indicated that he broke into the home of Venezuelan minors in a vulnerable area after “drawing the atmosphere” between the president and one of the teenagers.

This Sunday, PT posted the images on their social media (16).

Hours earlier, Bolsonaro had denied the allegations and defended himself, saying he entered the teens’ home with “10 other people,” a visit that was accompanied by CNN.

“PT has exceeded all limits,” he said indignantly.

At the request of Bolsonaro’s lawyers, the TSE (Supreme Electoral Court) ordered the removal of the video of statements from various platforms, considering it “negative campaigning.”

A few days ago, false information linked Lula to organized crime after the former president wore a cap with the initials “CPX,” which stands for “Complexo,” an acronym for community groups in Rio de Janeiro.

In this scenario, where “proposals lose their centrality and pit narratives against each other,” “a heated debate is expected (…) with little information about the government’s plans,” analyzes Christopher Mendonsa, Ph.D. in political science.

Lula advances to the second round with the support of former candidate and senator Simone Tebet (MDB) and Ciro Gomez (PDT), who received 4% and 3% of the vote respectively in the first round.

Bolsonaro, for his part, has critical support from high-income voters and evangelicals.