“Liar”, “thief”, “unbalanced”… Lula and Jair Bolsonaro exchanged harsh words yesterday, Friday, during an electrified televised duel, two days before the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil.

During this debate, which lasted more than two hours and was broadcast by Globo, the country’s most watched network, the two contestants constantly accused each other of lying by presenting real programs for the four years at stake in Sunday’s vote.

“Lula, stop lying, go home,” said 67-year-old far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who went so far as to say that his opponent must “cast out evil spirits so that he stops lying.”

The leftist former president, who turned 77 on Thursday, did not stand aside: “This guy is the biggest liar in Brazilian history,” he said, before calling his opponent “unbalanced.”

Even erection problems took over the televised match. – Do you take Viagra? Bolsonaro asked Lula, who called him to account for the controversial purchase of 35,000 of these drugs for the army.

Yesterday’s phone brawl came at the end of an election campaign marked by often vulgar characterizations, low blows and massive social media misinformation.

“It was a fight against telecommunications that had nothing new to change the course of the game,” political chronicler Ottavio Guedes told Globonews after the final televised debate before the second round.

Lula slightly increased his lead (by four to six percentage points) in the latest Datafolha poll released on Thursday, with 53% intent to vote against 47% for the far-right president.

In addition to the verbal confrontation, the duel was also physical. Each opponent tried to control the field as much as possible in the studio, turned into an “arena” for a merciless battle.

“Stay here, Lula!” the outgoing president said as his opponent turned his back on him.

“No, I don’t want to be near you,” replied the former worker, who often got too close to the cameras to address viewers in the eyes.

The telephone battle was interrupted several times by the votes of the campaign headquarters, trying to distract the candidates.

Lula attacked his opponent for his international politics, an issue that had been virtually absent from previous televised debates.

“Under your rule, Brazil has become a pariah. Nobody wants to receive you and nobody comes here,” he said.

The former president (2003-2007) recalled that in November 2021 he was received with full honors at the Elysee Palace by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“He was passed off as the father of the poor,” Yaich Bolsonaro scoffed, also calling his opponent a “robber” who was jailed for 18 months for corruption in 2018 and 2019 before his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.

In the first round of elections held on 2 October, Lula came first with 48% of the vote, compared to 43% for Jair Bolsonaro.

But the far-right president’s performance turned out to be much better than polls predicted, giving him some momentum in his two-round campaign.

However, this momentum was halted by two major missteps: the unfortunate statements of Economy Minister Paolo Guedes, who said that the increase in the minimum wage may not be related to inflation, and the arrest of a former MP Bolsonaro, who wounded policemen with a grenade.

Feeling squeezed, President Bolsonaro, who has softened his criticism of the e-voting system, has found a new favorite topic this week: accusations of alleged irregularities in the transmission of campaign radio messages.

The Supreme Electoral Court rejected the presidential campaign’s request, arguing that no evidence had been presented that could constitute an “electoral offense” and an attempt to “destabilize the runoff.”

Bolsonaro is setting the stage for a contested outcome if he loses, experts say, fueling fears of violent incidents such as the storming of the US Capitol in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s defeat in the January 2021 US presidential election.

Source: APE-ME, AFP, REUTERS.