Brasilia (EFE).- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who aspires to be re-elected next Sunday, on Tuesday burned some of the last cartridges of his campaign in the country of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, favorite in all the polls .
in full final stretch for the electionsBolsonaro traveled to Petrolina and Juazeiro, towns in the heart of the northeast of the country, a region in which Lula has his biggest electoral stronghold and where the former trade unionist was born 76 years ago.
The far-right leader has once again shown his undeniable convening power, mobilizing thousands, driving large motorcycle caravans, mingling with his supporters and even riding a decked-out zebu to with the horns of the symbols of his campaign, in green and yellow colors. of the national flag.
“Our flag will never be red,” chanted thousands of people in two acts, in which Bolsonaro deflected his anti-communist rhetoric and touted the “conservative values” he upholds and sums up in the motto he adopted for this campaign : “God, country and family”.
He also re-emphasized that his government “does not admit to discussing the legalization of abortion and drugs and does not admit gender ideology”, thus marking some alleged differences with Lula.
“It’s the complete opposite of what the thief wants”, he declared, while the government program presented by Lula does not speak of abortion or drugs, even if it proposes to promote equality genders.
A difficult end to the campaign for Bolsonaro
According an extensive investigation This Monday, Lula concentrates most of his support in two strategic regions: his native northeast and the southeast, which includes the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, the three largest electoral colleges in the country. .
According to this poll, which generally coincides with others, Lula has 45% of voting intentions in the southeast, against 33% attributed to Bolsonaro. A picture very similar to the national.
In the northeast, where the far-right leader is looking to close the gap in the final stretch of the campaign, Lula’s advantage is far greater.
According to this latest poll, the progressive candidate has 62% of the preferences, while Bolsonaro adds only 23%.
The situation of the current president is also not comfortable in the southern region of the country, which is more developed, with a large upper middle class and which was one of his strongholds during the 2018 elections.
Four years later, Bolsonaro is still leading in the south, with 38%, but Lula remains a notch behind, with 35%.
Lula continues to give his support, but he worries about possible abstention
The progressive leader, comfortable in the polls, had a casual meeting with representatives of the sport on Tuesday, during which the president of the Workers’ Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann, expressed her concern at a possible high abstention rate on Sunday.
“In the last five days, we have to make a very big effort to get people to vote. Voting is our main weapon to differentiate ourselves from Bolsonaro,” Hoffmann said.
In Brazil, voting is compulsory, but despite everything, abstention increased in the last elections and reached a maximum of 20% in 2018, when Bolsonaro brought the far right to power.
According to the calculations of lullah’s campaignfor it to exceed 50% of the vote next Sunday and prevent a second round, a massive participation of the electorate will be necessary.
Lula, who for a week has been urging Brazilians to vote, reiterated this call when meeting with the athletes, asking them to increase their participation in politics and, above all, in the fight against racial prejudice.
“We live in a time of racism, a more violent racism than some time ago,” he said, to link this phenomenon, in the case of Brazil, to the advance of Bolsonarism.
“It’s not possible, it’s not possible that there are still people who want to build white supremacy” in Brazil, complained Lula, referring to an event organized by Bolsonaro a few years ago. weeks, which he had previously likened to a “Ku Klux Klan meeting.” “.
Web editor: Juan David Mosos