MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula asks Bolsonaro whether he will wield “Milei’s chainsaw” in a heated debate

The face-off, lasting more than two hours, was held at the headquarters of the Band network in São Paulo and was the first of the campaign: neither candidate had attended the first-round debates

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asked his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, on Sunday whether he intends to apply Argentine President Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” to cut 250 billion reais in public spending, during a first televised debate marked by mutual accusations of corruption, a week before the October 25 runoff.

The face-off, lasting more than two hours, was held at the headquarters of the Band network in São Paulo and was the first of the campaign: neither candidate had attended the first-round debates. Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party, opened with attacks over an alleged influence-peddling case involving the president’s eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, based on an interview given the previous day to CNN Brasil by a lobbyist implicated in the matter. Lula responded by pointing to investigations into his rival, including one linked to the Banco Master case.

Besides the spending cuts plan, Lula asked Bolsonaro whether he would hand Brazil’s natural resources to the United States, to which he accused him and his family of being “subservient”, and accused him of planning to privatise the state oil company Petrobras. Bolsonaro focused much of his time on security. Asked about sovereignty, he spoke of Brazilians’ “loss of sovereignty” in neighbourhoods controlled by drug trafficking: “The streets will be ours again and not those criminals’.” He reiterated his proposal to create a Ministry of Prosperity and urged voters to vote “without fear”.

The debate ended with a disturbance in the audience that forced the moderator to intervene as Lula began his closing statement.

Polls show a statistical tie, with a slight edge for Bolsonaro, who won the first round with 47.03% of the vote against Lula’s 45.16%. The two will face each other again on Friday 23 on TV Globo, two days before the vote.