undecided popular neighborhoods three days before the presidential election

The Baixada Fluminense, a gigantic region north of Rio, is made up of around ten municipalities. It has nearly four million inhabitants, mostly blacks and mestizos. In 2018, there was a massive vote for Bolsonaro, sometimes almost 70%.

At the entrance to Nova Iguaçu, no tarmac but dirt roads studded with potholes. In this neighborhood forgotten by the election campaign, “Jesus” written in large letters everywhere, abandoned cement social housing… Sarah lives here with her 5-year-old son and his mother. Today, the pharmacy saleswoman no longer wants to hear about Bolsonaro: “I voted for him because I really thought he would do better than the others. Today, I can’t get by, everything is very expensive, food, gas for example. Before, I paid the bottle 60 reals (11 euros), today it’s double.”

Double-digit inflation, high unemployment, one in six Brazilians goes hungry. Fridges and cupboards are empty, a shame in this behemoth country of world agricultural production. In August, the government increased social assistance until December from 77 to 115 euros. This allowance was created by Lula when he was in power. Sarah will vote for her party, the PT, the Workers’ Party: “Today we are afraid to say it, because in Brazil some people have been killed for it.”

Some will decide after watching the last televised debate between the candidates on Thursday evening. In her shack, Jucilene will take a look. For now, she rules out voting for Bolsonaro, but “Lula is also offside for me.”

This single mother lives in one of the dumps in the neighborhood of Duque de Caixas. The permanent smell of burnt plastic no longer bothers him. What worries her are the stray bullets from the police or drug traffickers who hold the favela. She is angry with Jair Bolsonaro for having underestimated the Covid-19, this “flu” in the words of the president, which has killed nearly 690,000 people in the country. “My sister died at the very beginning of the epidemic. She was not feeling well, we took her to the hospital, and three days later we were told that she had been intubated but her heart gave out. Bolsonaro despised us, I hate him.”

Maurizio, a local political figure, says he is sickened by the way Jair Bolsonaro has handled the health and economic crises. He campaigned alongside the ex-MP for Rio in 2018. He will vote for the “least worst” of the other candidates: “Of course, neither Lula nor Bolsonaro! The first is corrupt, he was in prison, he was the gang leader, and the other gave us hope that all of this would be over, but his family is embroiled in so many scandals that her name is forever stained.”

In the latest polls, Lula is still in the lead: around 45% against 33% for his opponent. Itamar, a 62-year-old driver and capoeira master, doesn’t believe in polls and thinks elections are rigged. The Métis will vote for Bolsonaro again, even if he says he is embarrassed by the outgoing president’s racist outings. Like him, he is against abortion, marriage for all, the vaccine and a supposed gender theory: “Okay, the sexual act is part of life but we can’t encourage children to be bisexual, to be neither boy nor girl… The PT and all these gauchos push for that!”

It is a well-established belief among supporters of Bolsonaro, who had already made it a campaign argument in 2018.