Two weeks before the second round, on October 30, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro and candidate Lula are trying to influence public opinion via social networks.
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Neither debates of ideas nor developments on the vision of the country but invectives. In Brazil, the presidential campaign – with a view to the second round, on October 30, between outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro and former head of state Lula – is rather disappointing for political scientists. And, with the remaining two weeks of campaigning ahead, Brazilians can expect an increasingly complicated political climate.
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From the first round, the far-right camp, therefore that of Jair Bolsonaro, launched a campaign which presented former President Lula as the devil. They portrayed the leader of the left as a man who was going to close the churches, legalize abortion… A series of false assertions since Lula is a practicing Catholic and never intended to close the churches during these two previous terms. But, according to opinion polls, this excessively repeated campaign on social networks has worked and some Brazilians really believe that Lula will attack religions.
For its part, the left decided to react to these attacks and entered the game of the extreme right. The Lula party did not use false information but went looking for old videos of Jair Bolsonaro which are not to their advantage. A video, for example, shows him with Freemasons. It’s not a crime, but for evangelists – Bolsonaro’s audience – it’s a totally forbidden practice. On another video, dating from 2016, the Brazilian president assures a journalist from the New York Times that he would easily eat an Indian. In the Workers’ Party clip, Jair Bolsonaro has become the cannibalistic president. The whole country saw this video and it must not have benefited it. He is still behind Lula in the polls.