Who is Jair Bolsonaro, the man likely to be the next president of Brazil?

The Brazilians will vote Sunday in a presidential election that caught the attention of the world largely thanks to a man: Jair Bolsonaro. The former right-wing captain, 63, won a first round earlier this month. He maintains a double-digit lead over his left-wing rival, Fernando Haddad, in opinion polls preparing for the second round.

Bolsonaro has been denounced by all, whether it be Madonna or the former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

But what are Bolsonaro's positions on Brazil's main problems? Here is an overview of his position in four key areas: the environment, the economy, crime and democracy.

Environment

Environmentalists breathed a sigh of relief this week when Bolsonaro gave up his previous threats to follow President Trump's footsteps and pull Brazil out of the Paris global deal to tackle climate change, as long as the Brazil retains sovereignty over indigenous lands and rain. forest. He also reconsidered his initial commitment to eliminate the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. But that does not mean that Bolsonaro suddenly became Lorax.

Bolsonaro is a strong supporter of the agri-food industry – one of the pillars of its political platform – and is likely to favor profits rather than preservation. He called for a new, business-friendly approach to exploiting Brazil's natural resources, insisting that overzealous bureaucrats harassed farmers who were simply trying to make a living by cutting themselves off from jungle pieces.

Brazil is the guardian of the largest rainforest in the world, in the Amazon basin. But Bolsonaro has reprimanded foreign pressures to protect him and warned international non-profit groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that he would not tolerate their agendas in Brazil. He also strongly opposed the lands reserved for indigenous tribes. Bolsonaro's advisers have also announced plans to expand nuclear and hydroelectric power in the Amazon.

Critics fear that all this is tantamount to declaring a great green rush – opening up the Amazon region already in danger to a potential for free trade for all economic interests.

Economic policy

"I really do not understand much about the economy," Bolsonaro once acknowledged. That said, Bolsonaro has detailed its economic platform more than any other of its policies.

At the beginning of his political career, Bolsonaro was considered by many to be a pro-state protectionist. He voted with the Left Workers Party against the privatization of the oil and telecommunications industries. He even praised the beginning of the pro-state period of former Venezuelan left-wing Prime Minister Hugo Chávez – the last regional leader he is now revolting around.

More recently, Bolsonaro claims to have embraced a profound change in favor of the free market – and promises what could be a deep dive into capitalism. Paulo Guedes, an economist trained at the University of Chicago, is his financial czar. Guedes, a fervent disciple of economic liberalism, had to convince the market that his point of view would prevail if Bolsonaro were elected. Knowing that Guedes would lead the economy, investors would be much more willing to try their luck on Bolsonaro.

"He's listening in politics, I'm listening in economics," Bolsonaro told Guedes. "We go out together."

Guedes said he wants to privatize or close state-owned companies, cut public spending, facilitate international trade and carry out austerity reforms. Investors faint, but Bolsonaro's ability to keep his promises of division will depend on the strength of the coalition that he is able to train at the National Congress.

Some fear that the Bolsonaro-Guedes match will not last and that Guedes will be able to leave – or that Bolsonaro will be able to oust him – before he is able to implement a meaningful reform.

criminality

"A policeman who does not kill is not a policeman," Bolsonaro said last year. That pretty much sums up Bolsonaro's opinion on the application of the law.

Brazil is undeniably at the heart of a horrific wave of crimes, fueled largely by infernal war gang wars to obtain commercial rights to sell drugs and other contraband in Brazil's cities. . Homicides hit a record 63,880 last year, nearly twice as much as in the United States and the European Union.

Bolsonaro's solution is zero tolerance. He called on the police to use a more deadly force and wants to loosen the gun laws so ordinary people can defend themselves. In the past, he defended the use of torture by the police on drug traffickers and kidnappers.

Yet Brazil already has one of the world's deadliest police forces, killing more than 5,000 last year, according to government figures. Experts warn that Bolsonaro's crackdown platform could worsen the lives of many people of color.

"There is no reason to think that what he proposes will work," said Ilona Szabó, director of the Igarapé Institute, a think-tank based in Rio de Janeiro that focuses on security issues. "Things will get worse. The police will kill more. There will be more extrajudicial killings, especially slum dwellers and blacks. "

Democracy

Bolsonaro, a former army officer, has a long history of commendations praising the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 and that killed and killed at least 434 dissidents. In the years following the dictatorship, at a time when most Brazilian politicians had turned the page on history and rarely spoke of the regime, Bolsonaro had called for a coup of the military state. In 1999, while he was at the National Congress, he completely rejected democracy and called for the assassination of the then president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

"Thanks to the vote, nothing will change in this country, nothing, absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, this will only change the day a civil war breaks out here and do the job that the military regime did not do. Killing about 30,000 people, starting with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, we can not let him out, no, "said Bolsonaro in an interview with state television in 1999." Innocent people will die, all right, but in every war innocent people die. "

Bolsonaro has since reinstated some of his most undemocratic statements, telling reporters in May that he was "totally committed to democracy," and by signing this month a statement claiming that he would maintain the freedom of democracy. Expression and the press he was elected. . However, his commitment to liberal democracy, human rights and freedom of the press is threatened. He notably threatened to reduce the public funds allocated to Globo and Folha, two of the most important media in Brazil.

Bolsonaro's son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, suggested that "soldiers" could intervene if the Supreme Court tried to remove Bolsonaro from his presidency if elected. Bolsonaro, however, rebuked his son for the comment, which he described as "absurd".