The far-right frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president has vowed to liquidate his country’s “failed system” as Latin America’s biggest democracy prepares for what some are calling the most critical election in its history.
“The time for change has come,” Jair Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former paratrooper notorious for his hostility to black and gay people, the environment and the left, told his 1.6 million Twitter followers. “We shall govern by example, mirror ourselves in the great nations … rid ourselves of ideological ties … finally end this failed system that has haunted Brazil for decades.”
On the eve of the election Bolsonaro enjoyed a 13-point lead over his closest rival, the Workers’ party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad, with about 35% of intended votes. That may not be enough to avoid a second-round showdown with the leftist on 28 October, since an outright majority is required for a win on 7 October.
“It is unlikely that this election will be decided in the first round,” said Glauco Peres, a political scientist from the University of São Paulo.
But Bolsonaro’s recent ascendancy in the polls and the palpably erratic mood in Brazil is such that a first-round win is now a possibility.
“Everything here has been so unpredictable that I don’t know if I’ll put my neck on the line for anything anymore,” Peres said.
The prospect of a Bolsonaro presidency horrifies Brazilian minorities and progressives, with celebrities such as Madonna, Cher and Stephen Fry condemning the rise of a politician with a long track record of hate speech. “If I see two men kissing each other in the street, I’ll whack them,” Bolsonaro told an interviewer in 2002. Nine years later he declared: “I’d rather my son died in an accident than showed up with some bloke with a moustache.”
The Margaret Thatcher-quoting, Donald Trump-admiring populist is notorious for his regard for repression. “I am in favour of a dictatorship … We will never resolve serious national problems with this irresponsible democracy,” the presidential pacesetter, whose campaign team is packed with retired generals, once proclaimed.
On Saturday Bolsonaro’s rivals pleaded with voters to reconsider. “My country is walking towards a precipice,” said Ciro Gomes, the Democratic Labour party candidate, in third place. “Brazil is on the verge of an irreversible rupture,” warned Marina Silva, the fifth-placed Sustainability Network party candidate.
A PT campaign video likened Bolsonaro to Adolf Hitler and urged voters: “Not him!”
Bolsonaro followers, however, believe that Brazil is on the verge of a historic shift under a corruption-busting, communist-combating conservative who can lead their country out of moral decay and its worst ever recession.
“Bolsonaro is Brazil’s only option right now if it wants to avoid becoming a Venezuela,” said Paulo Henrique Villa Boas, a 46-year-old supporter from the northeastern city of Recife. “Bolsonaro fights communists. They want to implement this ideology – which has killed millions of people in other countries – here in Brazil.”
Max Cavalcanti, 34, called Bolsonaro a patriot cut from the same cloth as Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini. “They are all defenders of their territory, their fatherland,” he said, adding: “It’s Bolsonaro against everyone – against the system.”
