{"id":57313,"date":"2026-10-24T11:17:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=57313"},"modified":"2026-10-24T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:32:59","slug":"lula-bolsonaro-hold-calmer-debate-before-brazil-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/lula-bolsonaro-hold-calmer-debate-before-brazil-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Lula, Bolsonaro hold calmer debate before Brazil election"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro debated more diplomatically than usual on Friday, although neither held back with cutting remarks two days before the runoff election.<\/p>\n

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, won the first round of presidential elections with 47 percent of the vote over leftist Lula’s 45 percent.<\/p>\n

Following a first debate loaded with insults and practically empty of concrete policy proposals, the candidates questioned each other on Brazil’s economy, infrastructure and regional development this time around.<\/p>\n

Lula challenged his rival’s plan to take a “chainsaw” to public spending in the style of Argentina’s libertarian leader Javier Milei.<\/p>\n

“I’ll have the same job here (as Milei in Argentina) because you’re leaving the country bankrupt,” Bolsonaro retorted, adding: “Aren’t you ashamed?”<\/p>\n

Flavio Bolsonaro accused the president of allowing organized crime to expand, driving families into debt, and doing nothing to reduce the cost of living.<\/p>\n

The right-wing candidate also reproached Lula for raising the minimum wage while keeping taxes high, mocking the finger the president lost in an accident as a metalworker when he was young.
\n“It’s no use, Lula, giving with one hand and taking away with your nine fingers.”<\/p>\n

“I will not allow a militiaman to call me ‘nine fingers,'” Lula replied, referring to allegations that his rival has ties to paramilitary groups in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro apologized to Lula, but not without asking him to “apologize to the Brazilian people who suffer from insecurity.”Lula questioned the senator’s experience, insisting that “he doesn’t know Brazil.”<\/p>\n

His challenger doubled down on presenting himself as a capable candidate who represented change for the country. Lula repeatedly asked viewers to “Google” Bolsonaro’s claims, to which the senator shot back: “Who governs Brazil, you or Google?”<\/p>\n

A Datafolha institute survey published Thursday shows the pair tied with 50 percent of voting intentions each, compared to Bolsonaro’s four-point lead in polls published two weeks ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro debated more diplomatically than usual on Friday, although neither held back with cutting remarks two days before the runoff election. Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, won the first round of presidential elections with 47 percent of the vote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57315,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313\/revisions\/57315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}