00:00Let's continue with the analysis.
00:02Less than 24 hours from voting, we are joined by Federico Fornasieri, Master's Degree in
00:07International Relations from the Federal University of ABC, and he has been working in the public
00:11sector and civil society for more than 20 years and has experience in the fields of
00:16foreign policy, international relations, regional integration, migration, and human rights.
00:20Welcome Federico to From the South.
00:25Thank you very much, good afternoon Luis and all the audience from Telesur around the
00:30world.
00:31It's a pleasure to have you.
00:33Federico, first question, as the debate just ended, we are in the final day ahead of the
00:36election.
00:37What is your take, what is your analysis from that final debate between both candidates to
00:41the runoff tomorrow?
00:45It was a very tough debate because we have seen on one side Lula proposing
00:51the ways that we want to govern and comparing his administration with the former President
01:00Bolsonaro's administration as well.
01:02That was a really tragedy in Brazil.
01:04And we have fact checks during the interview, the debate, that said that Lula said the truth
01:14more than 82% of the times that he said some facts there in the debate.
01:21Flappy Bolsonaro said just 18% or 82% fake news during the debate.
01:29So, it's a very tough because we are not watching a true and democratic debate.
01:35We were watching a Lula trying to show what he advanced in his government and seeing another
01:43candidate lying all the time, lying what he's doing, lying the facts, lying the data, lying
01:49about everything that, almost everything that he was saying during the debate.
01:54So, it was very difficult for the people actually know what's the true and what are the real
02:02intentions for the Flavio Bolsonaro candidate at this debate.
02:06And was really interesting point when Flavio offended Lula because of calling him nine fingers.
02:16And Lula showed that he had a work accident when he was young, he was 17 years old, and he
02:25compared his working class history from since he left the Northeast of Brazil in very difficult conditions
02:36and to found the Workers' Party and this difference between Flavio Bolsonaro.
02:43His first job was in vacation from his father in Brasilia and he was living in Rio de Janeiro.
02:50It's like a ghost employee in his first job.
02:55And it was a very good point for Lula to show where he's come from and who he's representing in
03:03his
03:03government and in this candidate debate.
03:08There you go.
03:10Many people are saying that these elections are way more important for Brazil and for the
03:14region and the international community as a whole due to the crucial role that Brazil plays
03:19in the international sphere.
03:22And we're seeing two candidates that have completely, we could say, opposite visions towards Brazil's
03:27foreign policy and regional integration.
03:29So what is your analysis on what is being decided not only for Brazil, but also for the impact
03:35that these elections will have for the region and the world?
03:41This election is crucial for the region and for the world in some aspects.
03:46For the region, United States and Trump government are interfering in Brazilian action.
03:51Using the big tech companies like Meta that are clearly interfering, putting down some left channels
04:02in Instagram, Facebook, trying to lower the impact of the leftists around the social network.
04:14But at this second turn here, the people and the Lula campaign, not actually the Lula campaign,
04:24figure out that we had to change things.
04:28Because giving to Bolsonaro this election is give to Trump the administration of Brazil.
04:36It's what happened in many countries here around South America.
04:40We cannot be a colony anymore.
04:43And this is the proposal of Flávio Bolsonaro's government.
04:48Giving the Marco Rubio and the government, the Trump government, all the strategic resources
04:55that we have in Brazil.
04:57Rare earths is one of the main aspects that Brazil is the second largest producer of rare earths
05:05in the world.
05:06So to lower the dependence of China, they want our rare earths and minerals and other aspects
05:15of our economy.
05:16They want to subjudge for United States interests here.
05:22And for the world, we have the Amazon.
05:24The Flávio Bolsonaro campaign is pro-devastation of the forests and the ampliation of the agriculture
05:36frontier here in Brazil, devastating the Amazon and could have a really huge impact in all
05:44we are seeing about the climate change around the world.
05:48So it's crucial for the world, for the environment, for the climate change that Lula wins this election.
05:55If not, we are going to see the things getting worse the next years and our resources being extracted
06:03and used by United States to promote his imperialist policies around the world.
06:09We are, as we have been saying, we are in the final stretch.
06:12We are less than 24 hours from voting to begin tomorrow on Sunday.
06:17What are the main topics that are going to be dealt in the activities that both candidates
06:22have today planned to close the campaign and to win those final voters?
06:26Is there still an opportunity to sway voters?
06:34Yeah, I've walked around São Paulo city here today and I've seen many people with the Lula
06:40stickers and Lula t-shirts and red t-shirts.
06:44I didn't even see any of Bolsonaro campaign around the street.
06:49So I think that the people here in Brazil, the left, the left, the worker parties, militants,
06:55are in the streets all the time, 24 hours, trying, not just in the streets,
07:00but also in the social networks, in the channels, trying to convince people to change their mind
07:07and decide their votes.
07:09And we have an interesting, actually, data here in Brazil.
07:14Most of the people decide who they want to vote between 24, 72 hours before the election day.
07:22So it's a crucial day for we keep with our militants in the streets
07:28and try to convince the people the importance of this election,
07:32not just for the Brazilian democracy, but for all the region and all the world.
07:37You were saying that you were walking around the streets of São Paulo.
07:40And one final question, what is the mood right now in Brazilian streets?
07:44What are people talking about as we are getting very close for polling stations to open?
07:52I think that everyone is very nervous, very anxious about what's going to happen tomorrow,
07:59because we are seeing in the polls now that we are getting very close
08:05and trespassing the numbers of Flávio Bolsonaro.
08:09Yesterday was 50-50 percent, and the tendency today is the Lula go ahead instead of Flávio in the first
08:19place.
08:20This is going to be the most difficult and close results that we are going to have in our history
08:28in Brazil.
08:31Flávio won by 2 percent almost the first poll.
08:36It was the shortest difference between two candidates in the first round to go to the second round.
08:46So this is going to be vote-by-vote election here in Brazil.
08:51Thank you very much, Federico, for your time and for your input hearing from the south.
08:57Thank you very much.
