[ad_1]
The most acrimonious and unpredictable election campaign in Brazil's recent history collapsed after one of the main candidates was stabbed while campaigning.
Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right legislator and retired army officer, was recovering on Friday morning after being transferred from the town of Juiz de Fora, where he had been stabbed during the war. a campaign in the previous afternoon.
The alleged perpetrator was arrested moments after the attack and told the police he was "on a mission from God".
The doctors said Bolsonaro would spend at least a week in the hospital and could take weeks to recover from serious injuries.
Meanwhile, his main rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is campaigning behind bars even though he was forbidden to appear because of a criminal conviction for bribery .
The first round of the election will be held on October 7.
"We have entered a very precarious environment," said Carlos Melo, professor of political science at the São Paulo business school in Insper. "If the country was already bogged down, the situation got worse."
Despite the unprecedented violence and corruption scandals that have made dozens of politicians, Bolsonaro's hard line on crime, his attacks on the left and his praise of the brutal military dictatorship of 1964-1985 in Brazil rang the voters preservatives.
Boosting concerns about escalating violence, Bolsonaro called for more flexible gun laws, impunity for police who kill criminals and chemical castration for rapists .
His extremist views and aggressive speeches frighten many Brazilians and he is at risk of being tried in the Supreme Court, prompting prosecutors to incite hatred and rape.
In a video recorded from his hospital bed and released Friday, he thanked the medical staff and described the attack. "We all have a mission here," he said. "I have prepared for a moment like this because you are at risk."
Speaking with difficulty, Bolsonaro lamented the Independence Day parade in Rio on Friday and cited his campaign slogan "Brazil Above All and God Above All."
the biography
Born in Glicero in São Paulo in 1955, of parents of Italian origin, he served in the army from 1971 to 1988, when he was elected city councilor in Rio de Janeiro for the Christian Democratic party . In 1990, he became a federal member of the same party. He has since been affiliated with several political parties. On July 22, he was officially nominated for president of the Social Liberal Party.
Policies
Bolsonaro espouses the populist and nationalist viewpoints that often penetrate the far-right territory. A virulent opponent of gay marriage, abortion, immigration and other progressive causes, he defended the death penalty and the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. In terms of foreign policy, he said he wanted to improve relations with the United States. Economically, he says that he is a free pro-market and privatization.
Political style
Deliberately provocative and polarizing. He congratulated General Pinochet, expressed his support for the torturers and called for shootings against political opponents, which earned him the label of "the most misogynist and hateful elected official in the world." democratic". , he paints himself as a tropical Donald Trump: a pro-rifle and anti-institutionalist activist who "dries the swamps" and represses violent crimes.
controversies
In addition to repeated calls for a return to dictatorship, he also launched incendiary attacks against women, blacks, homosexuals, foreigners and indigenous communities. Earlier this year, the Attorney General accused him of incitement to hatred.
Support and electoral prospects
Bolsonaro has a devotee who follows some conservative voters, who admire his promises of persecution against endemic violent crimes, and is likely to pass the second round of voting.
Bolsonaro is currently in second place after Lula. But the former president is serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption and money laundering and the Brazilian Electoral Tribunal has ruled he can not run.
Lula is still appealing, but his deputy presidential candidate, Fernando Haddad, former mayor of São Paulo, is expected to replace him soon.
In polling scenarios in which Lula is excluded for the first round of voting, Bolsonaro leads – although an IPOBE poll showed this week that he was losing to three other candidates in the second round and at the same level as Haddad.
And his stabbing could increase his support, said Paulo Baía, professor of political science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
"The attack strengthens Bolsonaro and virtually guarantees him a place in the second round," Baía said.
Captured on mobile phone videos, the attack could have been less dramatic.
Wearing a t-shirt bearing the inscription "My party, it's Brazil," Bolsonaro was worn on the shoulders of a defender amidst a crowd of followers when A man is slender to the crowd and stabbed him in the stomach. His son Eduardo, a federal MP, said the knife wound was 12 cm deep.
Thursday evening, another son, Flavio, candidate in the Senate, already proclaimed the victory. "A message to those bandits who have tried to ruin the life of a father man, who is the hope of all Brazilians: you just elect the president," he said in front of the press.
Proponents of Bolsonaro said the attack served to emphasize the dangerousness of Brazil. "If such violence strikes a presidential candidate, imagine the threats to the ordinary citizen," said Major Sergio Olimpio Gomes, police officer and legislator of the small social-liberal party of Bolsonaro.
Retired Army General Augusto Heleno, a close ally of Bolsonaro, said he would not be able to continue his intense campaign pace. "He has to recover, the consequences are serious," said Heleno.
An extended stay at the hospital would spare Bolsonaro the televised debates where he should have struggled in difficult conditions, and allow him to control his message via his cell phone videos and social media publications.
And while Bolsonaro's opponents across the political spectrum have condemned the stabbing, they will be forced to rule Bolsonaro. "How can you oppose Jair Bolsonaro on a day like this?" Melo said.
The police have named the suspect Adelio Bispo de Oliveira. The Small Party Socialism and Freedom (PSOL) declared that he was a former member.
Attacks against the national level, high-level candidates are rare in Brazil, but it seems that changes.
In March, Marielle Franco, a city councilor from Rio de Janeiro of the same PSOL party, was murdered with her chauffeur Anderson Gomes and two buses from a campaign caravan for former president Lula were hit by fire. Lula was not with the convoy at the time.
