RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President
Jair Bolsonaro is expected to
face his biggest rival for the presidency, popular leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, on Sunday for a debate ahead of October elections, after days of
uncertainty over whether they would participate.
اضافة اعلان
“See you at Band
(broadcaster Rede Bandeirantes) tomorrow,” Lula, who was president of Brazil
from 2003–2010, tweeted on Saturday.
Bolsonaro has not
officially confirmed his participation, but is also expected to appear,
according to campaign sources quoted by local media on Saturday.
“At one point I
thought I shouldn’t go, now I think I should. ... I think my strategy is going
to work,” the far-right leader said in an interview with Jovem Pan radio on
Friday.
The debate is the
first in the campaign calendar ahead of the October 2 elections. Organizers
have also invited four other candidates, including former finance minister Ciro
Gomes and Senator Simone Tebet.
Polls have put
Lula in the lead as the race heats up, with one published by the Datafholha
Institute earlier this month showing the leftist leader taking 47 percent of
the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 32 percent.
In 2018, when
Bolsonaro won the election, he participated in the first two presidential
debates — but was then stabbed during a campaign rally, and after undergoing
surgery he did not return for later debates.
Neither Lula nor
another former Brazilian president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, participated in
debates before the first round when they sought re-election in 2006 and 1998,
respectively.
On the eve of the
debate, Bolsonaro and Lula both released campaign ads mainly focusing on the
economy.
Lula criticized
inflation and the spread of hunger, which affects more than 33 million
Brazilians.
Bolsonaro
attributed inflation to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and drought; while
promising to maintain a welfare program which transfers money each month to 20
million families.
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