MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Bolsonaro, your days are numbered,” warns Lula

Lula's followers fear Bolsonaro might not acknowledge defeat

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva warned the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro that the latter's days as head of state were “numbered.”

The leftist leader said those words during a speech in Belo Horizonte, which was already a part of the Workers' Party candidate's campaign.

“Bolsonaro, your days are numbered. It is useless for you to say that you distrust the ballot box. What you are afraid of is losing the elections and ending up in jail,” said Lula in a speech Monday night in Minas Gerais.

Lula also highlighted that, in his view, Bolsonaro stood for “hatred, ignorance, fascism, and violence.”

Bolsonaro's criticism regarding the electronic voting system used in Brazil has Lula followers fearing that the rightwing candidate might not admit a defeat, which, according to most polls, seems inevitable.

However, Lula's advantage is not as wide as in previous months. A recent PoderData poll revealed that Lula's lead has been halved since mid-March. According to the survey, Lula has 40% of voting intentions against Bolsonaro's 35%. The former president remains stable, but support for the current right-wing president grew 5 percentage points. Still, Lula would win in a runoff by 9 points (47% to 38%), but earlier this year the gap in a hypothetical second round was 22 points.

All these polls were known before Lula officially launched his presidential candidacy on Saturday with a call for unity to defend democracy. “The most serious moment the country is going through forces us to overcome our differences and build an alternative path to the incompetence and authoritarianism that governs us,” said the former president.

Nevertheless, Bolsonaro's recent approach to the bulk of moderate parties known as “Centrão” is yet to be registered by future surveys. Bolsonaro is also launching a video campaign in which Lula is seen walking alongside former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, in a clear sign that if Brazilians do not want their country to follow the path of their northern neighbor they should not vote for someone akin to him who started the crisis.