Tens of thousands join Lula supporters rally on Copacabana ahead of Brazil election runoff
Tens of thousands of supporters of Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rallied on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach on the Saturday before Sunday's election runoff, in which nearly 159 million Brazilians will vote with Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro tied in the polls.
Tens of thousands join Lula supporters rally on Copacabana ahead of Brazil election runoff
A tied race with historical odds against Lula
The Copacabana beach rally came a day before nearly 159 million Brazilians vote in the election's runoff on Sunday, with Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro tied in the polls. Bolsonaro, whose father, Jair Bolsonaro, was president from 2019 to 2022, won the first round on 4 October by 47% to 45%.
- No first-round loser has managed to bounce back since democracy returned to Brazil in the 1980s.
- Most analysts nonetheless see Bolsonaro as the slight favourite, having sold himself to voters as someone who will tackle chronic levels of violent crime.
Voices from the Copacabana crowd
Among those on the sand was Josias Silva, a 61-year-old truck driver, who voiced confidence that his 80-year-old president would win a fourth non-consecutive term. "The people have woken up," Silva said, adding: "Young people know we need this victory because otherwise we will have dictatorship again – and we don't want dictatorship."
"There's never been a demonstration like this one. This is the biggest protest in the history of Brazil."
Marta Moraes, a 59-year-old restaurateur, said she was "super excited" about a Lula win. She insisted the election was not a left-versus-right contest: "We've nothing against the right … what we're against is Bolsonarismo." Moraes said she lost four members of her family because of Bolsonaro's neglect of the Covid response.
Cammy Marinho, a 49-year-old DJ and activist, described her reason for attending: "I'm here to prevent democracy becoming extinct – which is what the Bolsonaro family wants." Her fortnight before the rally, she said, was spent trying to bring Lula the votes of people who backed Bolsonaro in the first round or stayed away from the ballot box altogether.
Many marchers belonged to "Lula's Army", a 10 million-member WhatsApp group created after the first round in the hope of turning the election around. Isabella Gaze, a 64-year-old retired teacher and group member, said: "Being a soldier in Lula's army … means fighting for Brazilian democracy. This isn't a normal election."
Heitor Lopes da Silva, a 14-year-old in a wheelchair, came from the city of Duque de Caxias with a placard that said: "Lula, I'm a person with a disability and I'm here to support you."
Scandals trailing the Bolsonaro campaign
In recent days Lula has appeared to regain the initiative and climb in the polls, amid a succession of scandals involving his rival. The latest came from the Brazilian magazine Piauí, which claimed last week that Flávio Bolsonaro attended a boat party at the height of Brazil's 2020 coronavirus outbreak, in the company of sex workers and vaccine lobbyists seeking a deal with his father's government.
His father, meanwhile, sits in prison: Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula and received a 27-year sentence. Brazilian press reports say that under a Bolsonaro administration, several plotters now jailed or living in exile could be handed senior posts in the military and police.
Bolsonaro supporters march in Belo Horizonte
Large crowds of Bolsonaro supporters also hit the streets, including in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, Brazil's second-largest electorate. The state has backed every president Brazil has elected, and in the first round Bolsonaro carried it by a margin of just under 5%.
Thousands of Bolsonaristas gathered at Praça da Liberdade, a palm-lined plaza, to AI-generated funk carioca tracks, waving Brazilian and US flags. Asked about the US flag among them, 56-year-old cosmetics entrepreneur Marcos Antonio said: "The US is a great nation. Who wouldn't want to be aligned with them?" He added: "I don't want an alliance with Cuba or Venezuela. I want to move forward."
Antonio Carlos Costa Jr, a 59-year-old shooting club owner, complained that "Lula did nothing for the country" and said: "Jair Bolsonaro simply gave citizens the right to defend themselves, and his son will do the same."
The candidates now await Sunday's runoff, in which nearly 159 million Brazilians will vote with the pair tied in the polls.
