Are the absent always wrong? Former President Lula, who did not participate in the second debate of the Brazilian presidential campaign on September 24, was the target of much criticism from his opponents, underlines The state of Sao Paulo.
The conservative daily of the megalopolis shows in one of its edition of Sunday September 25 a photo where we see the candidates Felipe d’Avila, Soraya Thronicke, Simone Tebet, Jair Bolsonaro, Ciro Gomes, Padre Kelmon and the presenter Carlos Nascimento, as well as an empty chair: that of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as “Lula”.
According The state of Sao Paulothe favorite in the polls – he is credited with 47% of voting intentions according to a Datafolha survey published on September 23 – had “chosen to miss the debate on the pretext of calendar incompatibility”. But while the candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT) multiplied outings against outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro during a meeting organized in Itaquera, east of São Paulo, his opponents were having a field day in the studio. where the debate was broadcast.
“A debate is like a job interview”
“A debate is like a job interview”, launched Senator Soraya Thronicke (União Brasil, right):
“Would you hire a candidate who didn’t come for the interview? This candidate is Lula. He doesn’t deserve your fast, he missed the interview, that’s what people who don’t like to work do.”
Ciro Gomes (PDT, center left) lamented the“arrogance” of the former president, and far-right president Jair Bolsonaro criticized “an ex-convict” which does not have “no attachment to the population” Brazilian.
The outgoing president was however the other major target of this tense debate, where the theme of corruption was very often mentioned. Simone Tebet (MDB, center right) notably attacked the “secret budget” system set up by Jair Bolsonaro for his allies in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, which she described as “federal government corruption”.
A third and final debate is to be held on Thursday September 29, three days before the Sunday October 2 elections.