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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/28/jair-bolsonaro-elected-president-brazil/">https://theintercept.com/2018/10/28/jair-bolsonaro-elected-president-brazil/</a></font>
<h1 class="Post-title"><a class="Post-title-link"
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/28/jair-bolsonaro-elected-president-brazil/">Jair
Bolsonaro Is Elected President of Brazil. Read His
Extremist, Far-Right Positions in His Own Words</a></h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Andrew Fishman - October 28,
2018<br>
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<p><u>Jair Bolsonaro was</u> elected president of Brazil
on Sunday evening. The far-right candidate received more
than 55 percent of valid votes. His opponent, Fernando
Haddad of the Workers’ Party, received less than 45
percent. In a country with compulsory voting, almost 29
percent of adults preferred to annul or not cast their
ballot.</p>
<p>Across Brazil, city streets echoed with fireworks,
shouts, and car horns as preliminary election results
came in. Thousands of supporters, many dressed in green
and yellow, assembled outside the president-elect’s
beach-front residence in Rio de Janeiro. On São Paulo’s
main street, Avenida Paulista, police used tear gas to
separate Haddad and Bolsonaro voters.</p>
<p>Bolsonaro, who has taken aim at the media throughout
his campaign, chose to make his first statement after
the election via Facebook Live, rather than a press
conference. “We could not continue to flirt with
socialism, communism, populism, and the extremism of the
left,” he said. The broadcast was picked up by major TV
networks, but repeatedly froze due to connection issues.
“All of the promises made to political groups and the
people will be kept,” he added.</p>
<p>Soon after, he stepped outside, made a brief statement
to the media, and asked a key supporter, Sen. Magno
Malta, to lead the group in prayer. He then read a
prepared statement and took questions from a
representative of the press.</p>
<p>The Workers’ Party originally ran former President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva as their candidate, and he was the
clear favorite in the polls. However, they were forced
to swap him out at the last minute for Haddad, a former
mayor of São Paulo who had failed to win re-election in
2016, after Lula was <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/04/13/brazil-lula-prison-generals-military-coup/">sent
to prison</a> on a questionable corruption conviction,
and it became clear that higher courts <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/01/24/lula-brazil-corruption-conviction-car-wash/">would
not overturn the sentence</a>. Hindered by a late
start and the lack of a national profile, Haddad
struggled to gain name recognition and <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/11/brazil-elections-bolsonaro-workers-party/">failed
to distance himself</a> from public perceptions that
linked his party to corruption and the status quo.
Nonetheless, with the strong base of the Workers’ Party
and the message, “Haddad is Lula,” the 55-year-old
academic was able to scrape his way through the first
round of elections on October 7, taking 29 percent of
the vote in a 13-way contest.</p>
<p>This year’s elections were particularly fraught, marked
by <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/05/brazil-reactionary-politics-election-bolsonaro/">dramatic
polarization</a>, <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/16/jair-bolsonaros-brazil-political-violence/">political
violence</a>, and massive disinformation campaigns on
social media, in a country that has been roiled by years
of social, economic, and political crises. Since 2013,
millions of people of all political stripes have
repeatedly taken to the streets in <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/06/05/brazil-truckers-strike/">protest</a>; Brazil
has struggled to climb out of the worst recession in
history; massive corruption scandals have destabilized
political institutions and major economic players;
former President Dilma Rousseff (also from the Workers’
Party) was impeached on dubious grounds; her successor,
President Michel Temer (<a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/most-unpopular-leader-ever-in-brazil-is-temer-poll-shows">the
most despised leader in Brazil’s democratic history</a>),
has pushed through a series of unpopular austerity
measures; and Lula was jailed, a process that has
exposed the judiciary to relentless criticism for
perceived partisanship.</p>
<p>In short, every major political institution has been
increasingly discredited as Brazil has spiraled deeper
and deeper into a dark void. And from the abyss emerged
a former army captain and six-term congressman from Rio
de Janeiro, Jair Bolsonaro, with the slogan “Brazil
above everything, God above everyone,” and promises to
fix everything with hard-line tactics.</p>
<p>Seven years ago, Bolsonaro was a punchline for the
political humor program CQC, where he’d make outrageous
statements. A former presenter, Monica Iozzi, said they
interviewed him multiple times “so people could see the
very low level of the representatives we were electing.”
Now, it’s Bolsonaro who is laughing, and Iozzi says she
<a
href="https://tvefamosos.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2018/10/26/monica-iozzi-diz-se-arrepender-de-ter-entrevistado-jair-bolsonaro-no-cqc.htm">regrets
giving him airtime</a>. Riding the wave of public
discontent, Bolsonaro campaigned against the Workers’
Party, corruption, politicians, crime, “cultural
Marxism,” communists, leftists, secularism, and
“privileges” for historically marginalized
groups. Instead, he favored “traditional family values,”
“patriotism,” nationalism, the military, a Christian
nation, guns, <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/18/jair-bolsonaro-elections-brazil-police-brutality/">increased
police violence</a>, and <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/25/brazil-election-jair-bolsonaro-us-investors/">neoliberal
economics</a> that he promises will revitalize the
economy. Despite his actual political platform being
short on specific proposals, the energy around his
candidacy was enough to win the presidency and turn his
previously insignificant <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/05/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-election-stabbinng/">Social
Liberal Party</a> into the second-largest bloc in
Congress.</p>
<p>But what has frightened his opponents, many <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/25/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-ro-khanna-letter/">international
observers</a>, and even some <a
href="https://twitter.com/felipeneto/status/1056240281182486533">fervent</a>
Workers’ Party <a
href="https://twitter.com/joaquimboficial/status/1056179596784254976">critics</a>,
are Bolsonaro’s repeated declarations in favor of
Brazil’s military dictatorship, torture, extrajudicial
police killings, and violence against LGBTQ people,
Afro-Brazilians, women, indigenous people, minorities,
and political opponents, as well as his opposition to
democratic norms and values.</p>
<p>Here is Brazil’s next president in his own words over
the years. In the coming months, Brazil and the world
will discover if Bolsonaro will make good on these
drastic promises when he takes office on January 1,
2019:</p>
<p>“I am in favor of a dictatorship, a regime of
exception.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/06/nos-anos-90-bolsonaro-defendeu-novo-golpe-militar-e-guerra.shtml">Open
session of the Câmara dos Deputados</a>, 1993</p>
<p><em>Interviewer: If you were the president of the
Republic today, would you close the National Congress?</em></p>
<p>“There’s no doubt about it. I’d do a coup on the same
day! It [the Congress] doesn’t work! And I’m sure at
least 90 percent of the population would throw a party,
would applaud, because it does not work. Congress today
is good for nothing, brother, it just votes for what the
president wants. If he is the person who decides, who
rules, who trumps the Congress, then let’s have a coup
quickly, go straight to a dictatorship.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YP1F-7IDjU">Câmara
Aberta TV program</a>, May 23, 1999</p>
<p>“The <em>pau-de-arara</em> [a torture technique]
works. I’m in favor of torture, you know that. And the
people are in favor as well.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/qIDyw9QKIvw?t=890">Câmara
Aberta TV program</a>, May 23, 1999</p>
<p>“Through the vote, you will not change anything in this
country, nothing, absolutely nothing! It will only
change, unfortunately, when, one day, we start a civil
war here and do the work that the military regime did
not do. Killing some 30,000, starting with FHC
[then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso], not kicking
them out, killing! If some innocent people are going to
die, fine, in any war, innocents die.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTPT_oCtbDU">Câmara
Aberta TV program</a>, May 23, 1999</p>
<p>“I will not fight nor discriminate, but if I see two
men kissing in the street, I’ll hit them.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/cotidian/ff1905200210.htm">Folha
de São Paulo newspaper</a>, May 19, 2002</p>
<p>“I’m a rapist now. I would never rape you, because you
do not deserve it … slut!”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV98Im5zRs">Rede
TV</a>, speaking to Congresswoman Maria do Rosário,
November 11, 2003</p>
<p>“I would be incapable of loving a homosexual child. I’m
not going to act like a hypocrite here: I’d rather have
my son die in an accident than show up with some
mustachioed guy. For me, he would have died.<br>
…<br>
“If your son starts acting a little gay, hit him with
some leather, and he’ll change his behavior.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZtaYvzzeTQ">Participação
Popular, TV Câmara</a>, October 17, 2010</p>
<p><em>Preta Gil, actress and singer: If your son fell in
love with a black woman, what would you do?</em></p>
<p>“Oh, Preta, I’m not going to discuss promiscuity with
whoever it is. I do not run this risk and my children
were very well raised and did not live in the type of
environment that, unfortunately, you do.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/9T5ZSAO1MVg?t=217">CQC, TV
Bandeirantes</a>, March 28, 2011</p>
<p>“If a homosexual couple comes to live next to me, it
will devalue my home! If they walk around holding hands
and kissing, that devalues it.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolinavianna/5812429445/in/photostream/">Playboy
Magazine</a>, June 7, 2011</p>
<p><em>Interviewer: Are you proud of the story of Hitler’s
life?</em></p>
<p>“No, pride, I don’t have, right?”</p>
<p><em>Interviewer: Do you like him?</em></p>
<p>“No. What you have to understand is the following: War
is war. He was a great strategist.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/aSJsXlkVtq8?t=126">CQC, TV
Bandeirantes</a>, March 26, 2012</p>
<p><em>Interviewer: Have you ever hit a woman before?</em></p>
<p>“Yes. I was a boy in Eldorado, a girl was getting in my
face …”</p>
<p><em>Interviewer: Put her against the wall, a few taps?
Pah!</em></p>
<p>“No, well, no … [laughs] I’m married. My wife isn’t
going to like this response.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/aSJsXlkVtq8?t=401">CQC, TV
Bandeirantes</a>, March 26, 2012</p>
<p>“[Homosexuals] will not find peace. And I have
[congressional] immunity to say that I’m homophobic,
yes, and very proud of it if it is to defend children in
schools.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X0RG6DE114&feature=youtu.be&t=111">TWTV</a>,
June 5, 2013</p>
<p>“I would not employ [a woman] with the same salary [of
a man]. But there are many women who are competent.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rstRfaGJqyY&feature=youtu.be&t=328">SuperPop,
RedeTV!</a>, February 15, 2016</p>
<p>“Beyond Brazil above all, since we are a Christian
country, God above everyone! It is not this story, this
little story of secular state. It is a Christian state,
and if a minority is against it, then move! Let’s make a
Brazil for the majorities. Minorities have to bow to the
majorities! The law must exist to defend the majorities.
Minorities must fit in or simply disappear!”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmApqz0OgAs">Event
in Campina Grande, Paraíba</a>, February 8, 2017</p>
<p>“Violence is combated with violence.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="http://entretenimento.ne10.uol.com.br/televisao/noticia/2017/03/21/bolsonaro-diz-que-violencia-se-combate-com-violencia-no-the-noite-669263.php">The
Noite with Danilo Gentili, SBT</a>, March 20, 2017</p>
<p>“I went with my three sons. Oh, the other one went too,
there were four. I have a fifth also. I had four men and
on the fifth, I had a moment of weakness and a woman
came out.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp1GdBx32CM">Speech
at the Hebraica Club, Rio de Janeiro</a>, April 3,
2017</p>
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<p>“If I [become president], there won’t be any money for
NGOs. These worthless [people] will have to work. If I
get there, as far as I’m concerned, every citizen will
have a firearm in their home. You will not have a
centimeter demarcated for indigenous reserves or <em>quilombolas</em> [settlements
of the descendants of escaped and freed slaves that have
protected status].”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/ks0dgE8jpkw?t=23">Speech at
the Hebraica Club, Rio de Janeiro</a>, April 3, 2017</p>
<p>“Has anyone ever seen a Japanese begging for charity?
Because it’s a race that has shame. It’s not like this
race that’s down there, or like a minority ruminating
here on the side.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPj4KyLw8Wc">Speech
at the Hebraica Club, Rio de Janeiro</a>, April 3,
2017</p>
<p>“The big problem in Brazil is that the government is at
the jugular of businessmen. … The worker will have to
decide: less rights and employment or all the rights and
unemployment.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/3k4gHLoB_uQ?t=84">Event in
Deerfield Beach, FL </a>, October 8, 2017</p>
<p>“I’ll give carte blanche for the police to kill.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/10/jair-bolsonaro-eua-policia-matar/">Event
in Deerfield Beach, FL</a>, October 8, 2017</p>
<p>“Since I was single at the time, I used the money from
my [congressional] housing stipend to get laid.”</p>
<p>– <a
href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/01/1949837-daqui-a-pouco-vao-querer-pegar-minha-mae-diz-bolsonaro.shtml">TV
Folha</a>, January 11, 2018</p>
<p>“This group, if they want to stay here, will have to
put itself under the law of all of us. Leave or go to
jail. These red marginals will be banished from our
homeland.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/H9wxneOnIOI?t=77">Live
video address to a rally in São Paulo</a>, October 21,
2018</p>
<p>“You will not have any more NGOs to quench your leftist
hunger. It will be a cleansing never before seen in the
history of Brazil.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/H9wxneOnIOI?t=361">Live
video address to a rally in São Paulo</a>, October 21,
2018</p>
<p>“You will see a proud Armed Forces which will be
collaborating with the future of Brazil. You, <em>petralhada </em>[a
derogatory term for Workers’ Party supporters] will see
a civilian and military police with a judicial rearguard
to enforce the law on your backs.”</p>
<p>– <a href="https://youtu.be/H9wxneOnIOI?t=404">Live
video address to a rally in São Paulo</a>, October 21,
2018</p>
<p><strong><br>
Update: October 28, 2018, 8:02 p.m. BRT<br>
</strong><em>This post has been updated with details
about the election results and Bolsonaro’s first
statement as president-elect.</em></p>
<p><strong>Update: October 28, 2018, 9:25 p.m. BRT</strong><br>
<em>This post has been updated with final election
results.</em></p>
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