Sao Paulo, Oct. 16 Progressive former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recalled this Sunday the “denial” of the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, during the first presidential debate held this Sunday in Brazil, ahead of the second round of elections on October 30th.
The televised debate first confronted the current president and the former trade unionist, who spared no attacks during the discussion.
“You delayed the vaccine. Your neglect caused the deaths of 600,000 people when more than half could have been saved,” Lula told Bolsonaro.
“No one in the history of the world has played with the pandemic and death as much as you,” he added.
Lula was given the task of opening the debate and the first question he raised concerned the universities and schools that had been created during the current government, an issue that the far-right leader avoided, who chose to talk about economic issues and ended up raising the covid-19 issue.
Without going off the rails, as usual, Bolsonaro said he “was moved by every death”, that “more than 500 million vaccines were purchased under his mandate” and that Brazil was “the country that vaccinated the most. in the world”.
Despite being accused by a Senate commission of crimes against humanity and other crimes for the government’s questionable handling of covid, for irregularities in the purchase of vaccines, delays in the immunization process and promotion of drugs not suitable for the disease . , the current Brazilian president insisted on repeating that “history will show” that he was right.
On October 30, over 156 million Brazilians are called to the polls in the second round of elections to elect the next president of Brazil.
Two weeks after the ballot, the latest electoral poll released on Friday by the Datafolha company places Lula with 49% intention to vote against Bolsonaro’s 44%, a result that practically reflects the vote of the two candidates in the first round. EFE
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