Brazil Elects Self-Styled Right Wing Strongman Jair Bolsonaro
In Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday, Brazil elected to vote far-right nationalist candidate Jair Bolsonaro as its President.
Bolsonaro beat Leftist candidate Fernando Haddad by a vote of 55.1% versus 44.8%.
The former army captain is known for what the leftist media calls “homophobic, misogynistic and racist remarks”.
Bolsonaro openly praised a Brazilian self styled military dictatorship, defended extrajudicial killings and called for political adversaries to be shot.
He has been labeled by far-leftist critics as “the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world”.
The congressman also earned the ire of leftist women commentators for his “offensive comments”, such as saying to a female member of Congress that she was not pretty enough to be raped.
Bolsonaro who has shaped himself as the “Tropical Trump” – a pro-gun, anti-establishment crusader, told his 1.9 million Twitter followers ahead of what some call the most important election in Brazilian history “WE’RE GOING TO TURN BRAZIL INTO A GREAT NATION.”
On Saturday night, Bolsonaro went live on Facebook and issued the following statement:
“What is at stake is not democracy. What is at stake is the perpetuation of this rotten machine that we have there that lives off corruption, that takes away your medical care, education, security.”
Historian and writer, Lilia Schwarcz said Bolsonaro had successfully built his campaign on fear: of an imagined communist threat, a supposed moral collapse, and of chronic insecurity that he has promised to combat by loosening gun laws and with an iron-fist.
“Brazilians are voting for a big father and a very severe father” who would guarantee their safety and vanquish corruption, Schwarcz said. “And the price we are going to pay for this is not important.”
Ibope poll released late on Saturday show that the Workers Party left-winger candidate, Fernando Haddad narrowed Bolsonaro’s lead to eight percentage points.
“I’ve got news for you …. we’re going to turn this around,” Haddad tweeted on Thursday night, after polls showed him gaining ground with 44% of intended votes compared to Bolsonaro’s 56%.
José Roberto de Toledo, a political journalist from the magazine Piauí, expressed that there’s a very slim chance of Haddad winning because the support for Bolsonaro was stable in Brazil’s south and south-east.
About The Author