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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he would remain true to his rhetoric in the campaign for the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, which was strongly contested, after his success in the first round made the financial markets jump.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain and former lawmaker, nearly won the presidency in Sunday's first round of voting, winning 46 percent of the vote against 29 percent for leftist Fernando Haddad, a major shift to the right in the country's largest nation. 'Latin America.
With neither candidate having an absolute majority, Bolsonaro will face Haddad, the former mayor of Sao Paulo representing the Workers' Party (PT), in a second round vote on 28 October.
Some supporters of Bolsonaro have called to moderate his message to ensure victory, but the candidate said that he would stick to an uncompromising rhetoric about crime and corruption that affected voters . In Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world, many people are disappointed with traditional parties.
"I can not become a little 'Peace and Love' Jair, who would betray who I am," Bolsonaro said in a radio interview. "I have to stay the same person."
His words were a thinly veiled gesture of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had dropped his ardent leftist rhetoric to win the presidency in 2002, posing as the candidate "Peace and Love".
Lula, the founder of the Workers Party, was president until 2010, but he is now serving 12 years in prison for corruption.
Reflecting on the fact that he would win the second round, Bolsonaro said he had already begun talks with other congressional legislators to form a ruling government coalition. This has raised hopes for rapid and market-friendly reforms.
Brazil's benchmark stock index, the Bovespa .BVSP jumped 5%, thanks to double-digit gains from oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA) and state-owned enterprises, that Bolsonaro's advisers announced their intention to privatize.
Bolsonaro's popularity soared when the exasperated Brazilians decided that it was the best chance to counter a wave of violent crime and dismantle what prosecutors call the biggest political ploy in the world.
But his history of inflamed and anti-democratic rhetoric, his stance that the police should kill as many criminals as possible and his plan to block attempts to legalize abortion and same-sex marriage have put many voters angry.
& # 39; NOT HIM & # 39;
The former Ceara governor, Ciro Gomes, who broke with the PT and garnered 12% of the votes in the first round during his center-left presidential campaign, has refrained from supporting Haddad but has stated that he "would fight to defend democracy".
When he asked who he would support, Gomes referred to the slogan of anti-Bolsonaro protesters in recent weeks: "Not him, certainly."
Brazil's next Congress was also elected on Sunday, and in a dramatic change, Bolsonaro's Social Liberal Party (PSL) was on the verge of becoming the second largest force in the legislature.
The party would still need alliances to help Congress pass Bolsonaro's socially conservative policies and free market reforms, which was even more deeply fragmented after Sunday's elections.
Thirty parties won seats in the lower house, compared to 25 on the spot before the vote.
Congressman Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro's chief political advisor, said his team was targeting lawmakers from parties opposed to the PT – including those from parties whose leaders do not yet support the right winger.
"We will talk with all those who wish to speak with us now, which is interesting because many of them did not want to talk to us before the first round vote," Lorenzoni said.
This was in line with Bolsonaro's campaign commitment to end a horse-trading system between party leaders and seek the support of individual lawmakers, said Lorenzoni.
Bolsonaro attributes this tactic to the endemic corruption that drives voters to want a radical change.
Report by Gabriel Stargardter and Pedro Foneseca in Rio de Janeiro; Other reports and writings by Brad Brooks and Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo; Edited by Daniel Flynn and Frances Kerry
