by Eduardo Simões
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Women stole the stage expected to be predominantly occupied by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the first debate between presidential candidates, held in pool by Band TV, TV Cultura , Folha de S.Paulo and UOL, in a move that may have worsened Bolsonaro’s already delicate situation among the female electorate.
The president tried to polarize with Lula on the issue of corruption, trying to put the PT against the wall by citing Petrobras debt figures and calling him an “ex-convict”, leading the PT to accuse him of lying and doing the same. indictment of the opponent.
But his lack of temper with journalist Vera Magalhães, from TV Cultura, who asked another candidate, Ciro Gomes (PDT), whose answer it would be up to Bolsonaro to comment, brought up the female issue – and especially his history of aggression towards women – to the center of the debate, allowing MDB candidate Simone Tebet to stand out, as well as, to a lesser extent, União Brasil candidate Soraya Thronicke.
“Vera, I couldn’t expect anything else from you. I think you go to sleep thinking about me, you have some crush on me. You can’t take sides in a debate like this, make false accusations about me. You are a disgrace to Brazilian journalism,” Bolsonaro said.
Tebet then came out in defense of the journalist and Bolsonaro also attacked the senator.
“I did not ask your opinion. You are already appealing… You are a disgrace in the Federal Senate. And I’m not attacking women. It doesn’t come with this little story of attacking women, of victimizing yourself.”
At another time, Soraya Thronicke expressed solidarity with Tebet and Vera Magalhães and accused Bolsonaro of lying.
“When men are chutchukas with other men and come at us like a tiger, I get very angry,” said the senator, who, like Tebet, represents Mato Grosso do Sul. “In my state, there are women who turn into jaguars, and I am one of them.”
In the opinion of the CEO of Dharma Political Risk, Creomar de Souza, the clash with Tebet and the aggressiveness with the TV Cultura journalist harmed Bolsonaro’s performance.
“I believe it was a debate with supporting actors. Tebet was the only one who actually stood up to Bolsonaro and as that worked, in the end she even gave Lula light lunges,” she said.
“I think he (Bolsonaro) lost potential votes among women,” she added.
One of the goals of Bolsonaro’s campaign is to reduce his disadvantage among the female audience – according to the most recent Datafolha, Bolsonaro has 29% among women, against 47% for Lula.
Regarding Thronicke, the CEO of Dharma pointed to the senator’s defense of Vera Magalhães as her high point in the debate, for which, in general, in Creomar’s assessment, she was “green”.
Bolsonaro sought to recover later in the debate, trying his “security ball”, the defense of the family, and praising the work that the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, does in the government to encourage volunteering.
“I want to congratulate the First Lady on her excellent work. I have never seen Your Excellency look for you to deal with it,” Bolsonaro said, referring to Tebet. “No more victimism, we are all the same.”
Monitoring by the institute Quaest on the reactions to the debate on social media confirmed Tebet’s outstanding performance, especially in the third and final block of the debate, when she was the candidate who had the most positive mentions among rivals, with 62%. Overall, she ranked second on the networks, behind Ciro, according to monitoring.
In addition, a qualitative survey carried out by Datafolha with 64 undecided voters pointed to the emedebista as the one that did better in the debate, followed by Ciro. The survey also showed that for most of these voters, Bolsonaro fared worse, followed by Lula.
LIES AND CORRUPTION
The PT, by the way, had a poor performance in the assessment of analysts consulted by Reuters. In the face of Bolsonaro’s attacks, he accused his rival of lying, listed achievements of his eight years in government, but little mentioned scandals of the current administration, such as those denounced in the Ministry of Education.
In the first block, having the first question of direct confrontations, Bolsonaro went after Lula inquiring him about the corruption scandal at Petrobras and citing numbers – which the PT called liars – about the company’s indebtedness.
“President Lula, do you want to come back to power to do the same thing at Petrobras?”, asked Bolsonaro.
Lula countered by accusing Bolsonaro of lying.
“Citing numbers that are liars is also not worth it on television,” he said.
In his rejoinder, Bolsonaro maintained the offensive and said that the Lula government was marked by “kleptocracy” and that the PT led “the most corrupt government in the history of Brazil”.
The PT member, in his rejoinder, cited a series of achievements of his government, such as investments in education and data on social inclusion, and added: “this country is the country that the president is destroying”.
At another point, it was Bolsonaro who accused Lula of lying, claiming that the lie was “in the DNA” of the former president.
For Creomar, from Dharma, the PT avoided going on the attack, given his wide advantage in the polls of voting intentions.
“Lula made a mistake in his strategy and, with the exception of a good moment, he was beaten a lot and did not understand that he needed to be firm in terms of responding to attacks”, he evaluated.
“I wanted to play still. It’s very risky, but understandable.”
Bolsonaro, in Creomar’s assessment, should take advantage of his attacks against PT to produce material for his social networks, a common practice for the president.
At the end of the debate, Lula sympathized with Tebet and Vera Magalhães over the attacks made by Bolsonaro, after refusing, when answering a question, to commit to parity between men and women in the ministry if elected.
RELATIONSHIP
The PT also had a remarkable duel with Ciro, when he was asked about his historical relationship with his opponent and the pedestrian was selected to comment. The former president said he respects Ciro, in a pacifist tone, and that he hopes to negotiate, if elected, the PDT’s participation in an eventual government.
The pedestrian then called Lula a “snake charmer” who always appeals to the emotional and personal side. By stating that his differences with the PT are not personal, he accused him of having corrupted himself.
“Even so, Ciro, we’re going to talk and you’re still going to apologize to me, because you know you’re telling untruths about me,” Lula said.
Keeping his tone high, Ciro said that Lula and the PT helped create Bolsonaro and the PT member recalled that, in the second round of the 2018 election, the pedestrian traveled outside the country, generating Ciro’s reaction off the microphone.
The pedestrian has already stated a few times that, although he refused to campaign for Fernando Haddad in the second round in 2018, he returned to Brazil in time to vote.
“Ciro, despite his usually qualified oratory, does not seem to have reached a state of precision that would allow him to deliver the message”, said Creomar, who also commented on the performance of the other presidential candidate present in the debate, Felipe D’Ávila (Novo).
“He seems to have been the one who felt the debate the most.”
(Additional reporting by Flávia Marreiro)
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