Brazil Is Shifting Toward Extreme Right Wing

FEATURING MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA – Brazilians voted in Presidential elections over the weekend and the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won a whopping 46% of the vote, with his closest rival, Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party bringing in only 29%. Bolsonaro and Haddad will face each again in a run-off election in two weeks and the right-winger expects to win.

Facing pressure to tone down his extremist rhetoric, Bolsonaro said after Sunday’s election, “I can’t turn into a Little ‘Peace and Love’ Jair, which would be betraying who I am. I have to keep being the same person.”

Anticipating winning the run-off, Bolsonaro has already begun talks with lawmakers. Many fear a return to military rule under Bolsonaro, in a nation that has been rocked with scandal over the past several years. Today’s political landscape in Brazil stands in sharp contrast to the social democratic and pro-worker government of Lula and his Worker’s Party.

Maria Luisa Mendonça, Director of Brazil’s Network for Social Justice and Human Rights.