(Sao Paulo) Brazil’s two presidential favorites, far-right head of state Jair Bolsonaro and leftist ex-president Lula, rallied their supporters in the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo, on Saturday. for shows of force on the eve of the polls on Sunday.
Posted at 2:30 p.m.
Bolsonaro, 67, dressed in a black jacket and without a helmet, led a procession in the morning to Ibirapuera Park, the green lung of Sao Paulo (southeast), where thousands of people were waiting for him.
Along the way, his fans in yellow and green waved Brazilian flags, cheered and demanded selfies with the president, who slipped away without delivering a speech.
PHOTO ERNESTO BENAVIDES, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
“Four years is a very short time to fix everything that went wrong in previous governments, so he needs four more. Bolsonaro is the best president of all time,” said entrepreneur Isabel de Morais, 54, who came to applaud her champion.
About 5 km away, almost at the same time, thousands of people in red marched on Paulista Avenue, emblematic artery of the megalopolis, for a “victory march” organized by the campaign of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). He waved to the crowd from the back of an open truck.
“Brazil, urgent, Lula president! and “Jair, it’s time to go!” “, chanted the demonstrators at the rally of the left-wing candidate, who hopes to win the presidency in the first round.
“I’m hopeful it will happen,” Ully Kotler, 29, told AFP. “The balance sheet of the Bolsonaro government? A real tragedy. »
Fake news
“Lula must come back to put an end to what is happening in the country. We have been fighting for a long time for a much fairer, more fraternal society, and Bolsonaro has ruined everything, ”said Anderson Momesso, 52, who came to support the candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), dressed in a red football shirt, the color of Lula’s political family.
The electoral campaign on radio and television has ended, but rallies and the distribution of leaflets are authorized until Saturday evening.
This campaign took place under very special conditions, for security reasons: the candidates wore bulletproof vests and security barriers were placed during rallies to prevent the crowd from getting too close to the stage.
False information circulated on the networks on Saturday, claiming for example that it is forbidden to vote while wearing the jersey of the Brazilian national team, popular with Bolsonarists.
These last hours of the campaign “will be very tense, everyone will observe the smallest details that could tip the balance one way or the other,” Jairo Nicolau, political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told AFP.
Despite these tensions, Saturday’s rallies passed off without incident.
The latest survey from the benchmark institute Datafolha was expected at the end of the day.
Thursday evening, this institute gave Lula still largely in the lead in voting intentions, with 14 points ahead of Bolsonaro (48% against 34%).
Fears of “trouble”
But the transfer of power could prove difficult in the event of victory on Sunday for the left-wing candidate, with long weeks until the investiture, on 1er January.
Lula admitted Friday at a press conference to fear “trouble” during this transition.
Jair Bolsonaro has given many signs that he may not recognize the results in the event of defeat, citing in particular the risk of “fraud”, without providing proof.
Last week, the Head of State said that it would be “abnormal” if he did not obtain at least 60% of the votes in the first round.
Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, gave his support to Mr. Bolsonaro. “I have met many leaders but few as exceptional as your President Bolsonaro,” said Orban in a video posted Saturday morning on the Brazilian president’s Twitter account.
“Let us all vote in peace, security and harmony, with respect, freedom, conscience and responsibility. Together, all Brazilians in the great celebration of democracy”, enjoined for his part the president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre de Moraes, on his Twitter account.