Monday, September 16, 2024, 18:27
The candidates for mayor of Sao Paulo exchanged more than just opinions during the last televised debate. There were insults, several outbursts… and even a chair blow that sent one of the candidates, the far-right Pablo Marçal, to the hospital. The politician from the Brazilian Renewal Labor Party, according to his entourage, suffered a broken rib, while his attacker, the social democrat José Luiz Datena, was thrown off the set. The TV Cultura channel, organizer of the meeting, immediately cut the signal, but decided to continue with the program with the other four invited politicians. The ‘show’ had to go on, even if it was only for those who had attended as an audience.
Sao Paulo is one of the most important cities in contention in Brazil’s upcoming municipal elections, scheduled for October 6, with 5,568 mayoral seats at stake. The debate on Sunday night was therefore expected to be heated, but no one expected it to be so heated that an assault would occur in front of the cameras. The tone of the confrontation began to rise when Marçal, one of the favourites in the polls, asked Datena to stop “clowning around” and resign from his candidacy. It was then that he brought up an alleged accusation of sexual harassment against his rival. “You little scoundrel,” the accused replied. “That accusation has not been investigated because there was no evidence. It was shelved by the Prosecutor’s Office. What you are doing is terrible,” he explained.
The far-right candidate, far from keeping quiet, grew in the face-to-face and continued with a succession of insults towards the social democrat: “Coward”, “idiot”… He was quick to hit the nail on the head to further muddy the confrontation by challenging Datena to hit him. “We want to know. These days you have said that you wanted to slap me, but you are not man enough for that. You don’t dare,” he said. A few seconds later his interlocutor broke a chair on his back. The audience in the studio could not believe what was happening before their eyes and, although the TV Cultura channel decided to cut the signal, the rest of the candidates continued with the debate despite the initial commotion.
A broken rib
Marçal was taken to the Sirio Libanés Hospital where, according to his team, they confirmed that he had a broken rib from the assault he suffered during the debate. The medical centre has not yet issued any report. Datena, who was expelled from the programme, admitted on his way out that he had “lost his mind” when he remembered the death of his mother-in-law, who died of a heart attack precisely after the accusations of alleged sexual harassment against her son-in-law and which the far-right candidate used as a weapon against the audience.
The network cut off the program’s signal after the attack, but the debate continued on the set with the other four candidates.
The far-right politician, influencer and businessman is known for his provocative and extravagant style and also for being an admirer of the controversial president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. Three weeks before the municipal elections in Brazil, which will call for 155.9 million voters and will serve as a thermometer for national politics, the polls place Marçal in a technical tie with Ricardo Nunes, supported by former president Jair Bolsonaro, and Guilherme Boulos, candidate of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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