00:00With Brazil's presidential elections less than six months off, far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro,
00:07son of the jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, is polling in a statistical tie with President Lula.
00:13Our correspondent, Brian Muir, has more.
00:16With former President Jair Bolsonaro serving a 27-year prison sentence for his role in the failed coup attempt of
00:242023,
00:24most of his supporters are rallying behind his son, far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
00:30Recent polls show him in a statistical tie with President Lula in this year's presidential elections.
00:38The right has organized in Brazil. It has militant, organic support, and the majority of economic elites are right-wing
00:46conservatives
00:52who are betting on Lula's defeat.
00:54We see this in the most powerful media institutions, where around 70% of the reports of the Lula administration
01:02is negative,
01:03despite the fact that he has made important advances for labor.
01:08The Bolsonaro family has close ties to the international far-right and its Silicon Valley backers.
01:15At a recent CPAC conference in Texas, Flavio Bolsonaro promised to open Brazil's rare-earth mineral market to U.S.
01:21companies.
01:22Driven by high-funded social media campaigns, his supporters are spreading false narratives about crime and poverty in Brazil,
01:29which are making it complicated for the government to explain what it's doing.
01:32The people have access to good public policies, but, in counterpart, many things in their lives haven't changed.
01:43This is a contradiction in that we have access to public policies, but our lives haven't improved.
01:51We have to explain why there is still social inequality in our country, despite the policy advances.
02:00The Bolsonaro campaign brags about its proximity to the Trump administration and capitalizes on the same culture war issues used
02:07by Trump,
02:08the German AFD, and Latin American leaders like Javier Millet.
02:12With Trump's popularity at an all-time low, however, some people are wondering how long these types of tactics will
02:18keep working.
02:20The race is just starting. The elections are still six months away.
02:25But what we are seeing in Brazil is a repeat of the same polarization that we had in 2022 and
02:322018.
02:36We are living in a situation of consolidated polarization.
02:41The electorate is divided between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro in the same way it was divided between Lula and Jair
02:48Bolsonaro.
02:52Brazil's presidential elections will take place on October 4th.
02:56Brian Mir, Tele Sir Recife.
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