President Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva dug in the past this Friday to wear down their respective opponents in the last debate ahead of the Brazilian elections next Sunday.
The debate had a harsh, harsh tone and focused more on the cross attacks due to the alleged failures of the respective governments led by both candidates, than on future proposals.
The tension in the atmosphere of the Globo television studios, the one with the largest audience in the country, was felt from the first minutes, when Bolsonaro invited Lula to stay by his side during a reply and the former president, with a snub gesture She said she didn't want to be near him.
The dialectical combat showed two more prepared candidates than in previous debates, who came to the set after having ironed out the errors of the last face-to-face between them and today they gave much more calculated answers to the most thorny issues.
Bolsonaro's strategy was based on repeatedly accusing Lula of lying during the electoral campaign and also on reproaching him for the corruption scandals that tarnished his government (2003-2010) and that of his co-religionist Dilma Rousseff.
To respond to Bolsonaro's provocations, Lula addressed the viewer three times to "apologize" for the lack of proposals in a debate where the word "lie" was the protagonist and Viagra was even discussed.
This after Lula questioned the purchase in large quantities of the drug used to treat erectile dysfunction by the Brazilian Armed Forces during the government of the far-right leader,
Lula blamed his rival mainly for the impoverishment of the population in the last four years and the questionable management of the pandemic by Bolsonaro, which led Brazil to suffer 690,000 deaths from covid-19.
"One day you will have to pay for the nearly 300,000 people who died due to the delay in the immunization process against covid in Brazil," Lula blamed Bolsonaro, recalling that he delayed the decision to purchase vaccines and refused to recognize the disease severity.
Pulling irony, Bolsonaro snapped that if he managed to get vaccinated it was because he bought vaccines, telling him that he should thank him for it.
The most heated moment of the debate probably revolved around the arrest last Sunday of former deputy Roberto Jefferson, an ally of Bolsonaro who threw grenades and fired dozens of rifle shots at the police officers who tried to arrest him.
Lula took advantage of this issue to question the policy of freeing arms sales promoted by the far-right leader, assuring that "whoever benefits from this policy is organized crime."
Bolsonaro used the security issue to suggest that Lula visited a favela in Rio de Janeiro to hold a rally "with the permission of drug traffickers," an idea that the current head of state's team has repeated countless times during the campaign.
Lula picked up the glove and pretended to be "the only head of state with the morals to enter a favela", to meet the "extraordinary people" who live in poor areas.
In his final minute, Lula asked for the vote to "restore harmony" in the country, assuring that Brazil "probably" experienced its best moment during his administration.
"There was no hatred. The culture worked, the education worked, the salary increased... we can rebuild this country," Lula said.
Bolsonaro took advantage of his final statement to defend the most conservative values, stating that his opponents defend the liberation of drugs and the legalization of abortion, something that Lula himself denied during the debate.
The president concluded by repeating his campaign slogan "Brazil above all, God above all."
Lula reaches the second round as the candidate with the most votes in the first round, with 48.4% of the votes cast on October 2, compared to the 43.2% received by Bolsonaro.
Voting intention polls indicate that this difference remains unchanged, with a difference of between four and seven points over the current president.
