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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attacked and insulted each other as they confronted each other in their first face-to-face debate. The debate takes place in Brazil’s presidential run-off in two weeks.
Lula attacked Bolsonaro by calling him the “king of fake news”. In return, he received accusations of lying, corruption and a “shameful record” from his opponents.
Lula, a charismatic but overshadowed former president (2003-2010), is gearing up for a comeback at 76. He was particularly hot when he criticized Bolsonaro’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil has 687,000 deaths from Covid-19, second only to the United States.
Lula slammed Bolsonaro for refusing to buy vaccines and peddling unproven drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, saying the president “bears the burden of these deaths.”
“Your negligence caused 680,000 deaths when more than half could have been saved,” the former metalworker said in his trademark raspy voice.
“No other leader in the world plays with pandemics and death like you do.”
Bolsonaro, 67, tried to drag the debate to corruption. That’s a weakness for Lula, who was jailed in 2018 on overturned graft charges.
“Your past is disgraceful … you did nothing for Brazil but put public money in the pockets of you and your friends,” Bolsonaro said.
“Lula, stop lying, it’s not good for you at your age,” the former army captain added, shooting at his opponent’s age while defending his record.
Bolsonaro, a caustic hard-line conservative who took office in 2019, came second with 43 percent of the vote in the first round of elections on October 2, compared with Lula’s 48 percent.
But many polls put Lula with a double-digit lead.
Bolsonaro’s stronger-than-expected performance gave him momentum into the final and increased speculation about the possibility of another surprise in two weeks’ time.
(input from institution)
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