Brazil’s presidential campaign kicks off amid violence fears

JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil — Brazil’s presidential election campaign officially began Tuesday with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading all polls against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro amid growing concern of political violence and threats to democracy.

Da Silva, whose two-term presidency ran from 2003 to 2010, has already taken to wearing a bulletproof vest for public appearances. He was scheduled to speak at an engine factory Tuesday morning, but federal police officers asked him to cancel the event due to security concerns, according to his campaign. Instead, the leftist launched his seventh bid for the presidency at a Volkswagen plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a manufacturing city outside Sao Paulo where he rose to fame as a union leader in the 1970s.

Bolsonaro revisited the spot in the city of Juiz de Fora where he was stabbed by a mentally ill man on the campaign trail in 2018. He arrived on a motorcycle surrounded by security guards and wearing a bulletproof vest, unlike in 2018 when he plunged unprotected into the thronging crowd.

Creomar de Souza, founder of political risk consultancy Dharma Politics, told The Associated Press that da Silva’s visit to an auto plant is typical of Brazilian symbolism, evoking nostalgia of his first presidential run in 1989 and hinting at his legacy. De Souza added that he expects candidates to attack one another more than present plans for voters.

“I want this election to end as soon as possible with Lula winning it, so there’s less risk of violence and more talk about the future,” Vanderlei Cláudio, a metalworker, said at the event.

Bolsonaro’s return to the site of his stabbing is an attempt to invoke the same outsider profile that enabled the seven-term lawmaker to cruise to victory in 2018, said Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

“For Bolsonaro, this is the image of himself as a rebel, anti-system candidate, and the attack on his life is central to that narrative,” said Santoro. “For him and his supporters, the man who stabbed him was not a ‘lone wolf’, but part of a conspiracy of the political elite against Bolsonaro.”

The race in Latin America’s largest democracy is a clash of titans, with all other candidates lagging far behind. Both have been publicly rallying supporters for months, although they hadn’t been permitted by the electoral authority to ask for votes nor air ads. So far, no debates between da Silva and Bolsonaro…