Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula attack each other over economy, security, and corruption in final debate

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the opposition senator Flávio Bolsonaro clashed this Friday in a final debate before the second round of the elections in which they attacked each other over the economy, security, and corruption.

The two candidates will face each other on Sunday at the polls in a tight runoff with an uncertain outcome, for which all polls place both in a technical tie.

The progressive leader and the eldest son of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) came face to face in the Globo studios in Rio de Janeiro, the country’s most-watched network, following last Sunday’s tense debate on the Band station.

Both were wearing suits. Flávio appeared with a tie; Lula, without one.

The senator, the most voted in the first round with 47% of the votes, two points more than Lula, wanted to exhibit a moderate demeanor, with an aspirational speech in which he promised “future” and “prosperity”.

The Workers’ Party (PT) candidate began by ridiculing his opponent. He compared him to “those students who memorize, but do not learn” to denounce his lack of preparation and accused him of not knowing “even a little bit of Brazil.”

Close to turning 81, the ruler appeared somewhat confused by the dynamics of the debate and, often, did not know how to manage the timing, to which Flávio reacted with a certain arrogance by asking if his rival was hearing correctly.

Flávio fuels the fire against Lula over inflation

Separated by a huge distance and behind their lecterns, the high level of indebtedness and the loss of purchasing power was one of the topics most addressed by Jair Bolsonaro’s firstborn.

According to official data, families are now dedicating nearly a third of their salaries to paying off their debts, a record level.

“Lula, when was the last time you went to a supermarket?” he asked.

Flávio accused Lula’s government of “squandering” public money, which in his view has forced the Central Bank to maintain a high interest rate, currently at 13.75% per year, which is suffocating the economy.

The head of state countered with data from his administration, such as growth above 2% and wage increases above inflation, and warned that his opponent will follow the neoliberal recipe of cuts of the Argentine president, Javier Milei.

In this sense, he asked him directly if he is “going to borrow the chainsaw” from his Argentine counterpart. Flávio, on the contrary, defended Milei’s administration and blamed Kirchnerism for the difficult economic situation the country is going through.

But the peak moment of the debate came when Lula became indignant after Flávio called him “nine-fingers,” in allusion to the accident the PT leader suffered when he was a teenager and worked as a mechanic in a factory.

Lula left the lectern and said: “I will not allow a militiaman to call me nine-fingers, someone who never worked a day in his life, whose first job was fake,” in reference to the Bolsonaro family’s ties to relatives of paramilitary groups in Rio de Janeiro.

Lula’s allies, sitting in the audience, burst into applause. Flávio apologized. Lula also put his rival on the ropes in a security segment.

Lula casts suspicion on Flávio

The president questioned his opponent’s commitment to security, recalling that he is defending in court a police officer accused of killing 5-year-old Ana Clara in Rio de Janeiro during an operation against alleged drug traffickers.

To try to destabilize him, Lula’s team seated Ana Clara’s mother in the audience. Flávio expressed his solidarity for “that tragedy,” but returned to defending the officer. “It was in an exchange of gunfire in a conflict zone,” he stated.

According to the journalists who were on the set, the mother reacted by calling him a “liar” out loud.

Flávio, for his part, promised a tough stance against crime and even advocated for eliminating the minimum age of criminal responsibility for cases of rape.

The debate descended even further into the mud in the final stretch, when both had eight minutes to talk about whatever they wanted and chose to cast the suspicions of corruption that weigh on each other.

Flávio brought up the influence peddling investigations facing Lula’s eldest son, while the president challenged his adversary to explain the relationship he maintained with Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, who was imprisoned for a massive financial scandal.

Flávio is under investigation in the Supreme Court for suspected corruption, money laundering, and currency evasion due to payments from Vorcaro allegedly intended to finance a film about his father.

“Have the courage to say that you are very good friends!”, Lula told him in one of their last exchanges of words.

The presidential campaign will end this Saturday, when both candidates will focus their final efforts on the country’s three largest electoral colleges: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro.