Brazilians are gearing up for the most exciting and important elections in the country’s recent history. The bitter election campaign, in which the first ballot took place earlier this month, will reach its climax on Sunday. Then the polling stations close at 5 p.m.; A few hours later, it will be announced who will be the new President of Brazil.

Will right-wing extremist President and former army captain Jair Bolsonaro (67) be re-elected? Or will former Social Democratic President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva (77) lead the country again?

According to the latest polls by the renowned Brazilian pollster Datafolha, Lula (49 percent) is ahead of Bolsonaro (44 percent). The lead of 5 percentage points makes the head-to-head race particularly exciting.

‘Evangelicos’ instrument for Bolsonaro

Archrivals Bolsonaro and Lula are diametrically opposed to each other ideologically. The campaign is mostly about the people and what they represent to their supporters; Less attention is paid to the content.

In the eyes of his supporters, Bolsonaro primarily represents traditional and conservative family values ​​and emphasizes the fear of so-called gender ideology and the left. For example, he opposes progressive notions of homosexuality and transgender people, as well as issues such as the legalization of abortion and soft drugs.

A vital tool in Bolsonaro’s struggle are the evangelical Christian believers, who have grown tremendously in Brazil through the powerful and often dogmatic originally Catholic Pentecostal churches.

You can see how this works and why they support Bolsonaro in this video:

Lula da Silva and his supporters fear that democratic values ​​and institutions that have been under threat under Bolsonaro in recent years will be further eroded if the far-right leader wins the election.

Over the past four years, Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked institutions such as Congress, the Supreme Court and the Electoral Council, which organizes the elections. He has already announced that he will not take any losses in these elections. Bolsonaro openly doubts the reliability of the electronic voting system. That, he says, is fraudulent, even though it’s been used for years.

Tropical Trump

Bolsonaro has been dubbed the “Tropical Trump,” which has to do with the means by which he binds his supporters. Like his ideological role model Trump, Bolsonaro has been using fake news and disinformation since the last election in 2018. You will be thrown back into the fray in this election.

Incidentally, Lula’s side is also to blame for this action fake news. The fear that Bolsonaro’s failure could bring back scenes like those seen in the United States, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol early last year, is real.

Bolsonaro uses his own social media channels on which he conducts a sophisticated election campaign. He uses popular music and the national symbols of Brazil, such as the flag and the national anthem, which he appropriated after the previous elections.

“Securing Democracy”

In his campaign, Lula promises a recovery of the Brazilian economy in addition to “securing” democracy. It stagnated under Bolsonaro, also because of the corona pandemic. An estimated 33 million Brazilians are starving, even though the problem was addressed under Lula.

In this campaign, Lula likes to refer to “golden days,” the years he was president. During his reign, between 2003 and 2010, Brazil was one of the emerging countries as a BRIC country. This was partly due to the major commodities and oiltree, causing the economy to grow to 7 percent in a few years. Social programs, like the family benefits introduced under Lula, have helped tens of millions of Brazilians move out of abject poverty and into the middle class.

But for many Brazilians, Lula is also a symbol of the major corruption scandal, Operation Lava Jato. More than a hundred politicians and high-ranking officials were arrested for this, including the former president himself. In 2018, Lula was sentenced on appeal to 12 years in prison but was released after 580 days. Subsequently, the charges against him were invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Abroad is watching

There is also a lot at stake internationally in these elections. Under Bolsonaro, Brazil lost international prestige and became further isolated. Bolsonaro has been discredited for his policies towards the Amazon. Under his rule, logging there increased significantly. If he wins, it is feared that deforestation will continue to increase as he further opens up the Amazon to economic activity.

In what will be a very tense election weekend, in a country that has never been so polarized, will be what happens when much of the population is disappointed.