BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attacked each others’ records in office yesterday in the first debate of the second round of Brazil’s election.
Reflecting a fiercely polarized race that has been largely devoid of policy debates, the two candidates fell back often on personal attacks during two hours of debate on TV Bandeirantes.
Lula said half of the 680,000 deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil could have been avoided if not for delays in the purchase of vaccines by the government of Bolsonaro, who minimized the gravity of the virus and pushed unproven cures.
Bolsonaro later took the offensive and blasted Lula for corruption scandals during the 14 years that his Workers Party governed Brazil. A huge graft probe arrested dozens of business leaders and politicians, including Lula, who spent time in jail on a bribery conviction that was later overturned by Brazil’s Supreme Court.
Lula won 48% of the votes in the first round of the election on Oct. 2 against 43% for Bolsonaro, whose unexpectedly strong performance set the stage for a competitive runoff on Oct 30.
In a heated campaign to win swing votes, both candidates have ramped up their rhetoric, and delivered bruising personal attacks in TV ads.
Bolsonaro’s campaign was counting on Sunday’s debate to help close the gap with Lula, who still has a lead of roughly 5 percentage points, based on surveys by pollster Datafolha.
Neither candidate detailed in the debate how they would raise the money to extend a more generous welfare program, which both have promised to do without breaking federal budget rules.
Rybar, a pro-Russian military channel on Telegram, said Ukrainian armed forces again shelled Belgorod, a town in southern Russia that serves as a staging ground for Russian forces.
Anti-aircraft units intercepted most of the attacks, but there were two explosions near the airport. Three people were injured, it said.
Shelling by Ukrainian forces damaged the administration building in the city Donetsk, capital of the Donetsk region, the head of its Russian-backed administration said on Sunday.
“It was a direct hit, the building is seriously damaged. It is a miracle nobody was killed,” said Alexei Kulemzin, surveying the wreckage, adding that all city services were still working.
There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to the attack on Donetsk city, which was annexed by Russian-backed separatists in 2014 along with swathes of the Donbas.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.