National elections were held in Brazil on October 7,2018.
117 out of 147 million Brazilians entitled to vote took part in the elections.
49 million voted for far-rightwing Jair Bolsonaro.
By CSP-Conlutas Communication Workgroup
He was followed by 31-million votes candidate Fernando Haddad who replaced former president Lula da Silva as the later was prevented from running due to a 12-year sentence in jail on corruption and money laundering charges.
Both will run in a second-round runoff on October 28, 2018.
Both candidates share a neoliberal austerity-oriented agenda.
That is why eight labor federations met on October 2, 2018 and decided to call the workers to go on a general strike against the social security reform as soon as it is announced.
Nevertheless, there are differences between them.
Fernando Haddad commits itself to revive Lula da Silva administration policies which prioritize big business along with some policies to the poor like the famous “Bolsa Familia” (Family Allowance).
Jair Bolsonaro wants to revive the policies of the dreadful military dictatorship which ruled the country from 1964 until 1984. His hero is a famous Brazilian torturer called Colonel Brilhante Ustra.
Infamous Stephen Bannon, former adviser for Donald Trump together with key army generals are behind his extremely law-and-order, racist, xenophobic, homophobic and misogynist platform.
In order to oppose that platform around one million feminist women and like-minded men took the streets of one hundred cities on September 29, 2018 launching the movement called #elenão. It is interesting to take notice of the presence of Palestinian banners in the demonstration taken by “Palestinians Against Bolsonaro”.
Affected by a 3-year recession, a major of the Brazilian workers are deeply disillusioned with mainstream politicians.
20 million did not vote. Another 10 million voted null or blank. Half of the incumbent Member of Parliament were not reelected in a major renewal move for Brazilian parliament.
Unfortunately the bulk of these dissatisfied Brazilians voted for Jair Bolsonaro in spite of the fact that they do not share Bolsonaro´s authoritarian and austerity-oriented perspectives. Then the divorce between Bolsonaro and his electorate might happen soon in case he is elected.
CSP-Conlutas leadership will meet this week to take a stand on the elections.
