Opinion – Vinicius Torres Freire: The risk of dirt at the end of the campaign

Jair Bolsonaro (PL) runs the risk of ending Sunday eating cold pizza. A victory for Lula da Silva (PT) in the first round is on the goal line. The imponderable of last-minute indecisions, abstentions and invalid votes can take the ball this way or that, by little difference. Maybe it rains too much or even lacks a bus for the people to vote, right? The biggest doubt is whether Bolsonarismo will try a hand throw, a kick or hit the referee.

Sounds like dawn worry. But even this Wednesday (28) the most fanatical factions of Bolsonarism were rehashing the story of the stolen election. The PL released a paper on “relevant vulnerabilities” of the electoral system, “with serious impact on the results of the elections”.

This Thursday, the last debate between the presidential candidates takes place on Globo, on the last day of the campaign on TV and radio. Given the history of Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism, it is not unreasonable to speculate that they unleash a rhetorical bomb of scandal in the debate. It could be a desperate attempt, with marginal effect, if any, to avoid early defeat. Lulismo’s time and means of reaction would be scarce.

A moderate congressman from Bolsonaro’s campaign says this is “delusion”. Even the “level of aggressiveness” of his “strong” candidate will be “dosed and based on known facts” of Lula’s political life. This congressman says that the attacks will be “objective” and, “for this very reason”, will leave the PT “emotionally shaken”.

Know there. Part of the leadership of Bolsonaro’s campaign has leaked through the newspapers that aggressiveness, bad manners, bad punches, inhumanities and coup threats did not go down well with the electorate. They say they tried to contain their candidate, with notable effect in the last two weeks, they believe.

It’s no guarantee of anything, as anyone who hasn’t been catatonic in these four years of darkness realizes. However, with the counter-attacks and counter-coups of August and September, important groups in society cornered the coup. This Tuesday, businessmen and company directors held a kind of precocious ceremony, hasty, some say, in recognition of the new king, a rally to declare their goodwill with Lula.

It has no effect on the outcome of the election, of course, but it’s more of a shovel on the last coup zombies who want to escape the pit. The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) also reacted this Wednesday to the crazy throes of the PL against electronic voting.

The court called the PL’s “conclusions” “false and untrue, without any support in reality, bringing together fraudulent and offensive information against the Democratic State of Law and the Judiciary, especially the Electoral Justice, in a clear attempt to embarrass and disrupt the natural course of the electoral process”.

The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered an investigation into the “criminal responsibility” of the “creators” of the PL paperwork.

Yes, shortly before, the owner of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, had averaged with the court and with the electoral system. It is a sign that even the core of the Bolsonarist center, PP and PL, is cracking, part of it already floating towards Lula or somewhere where they can find a little place in the sun in a possible new regime.

None of this changes the general trend of voting or the breeze of relative relief that began to blow in September. But there has been violence; Bolsonarism is in essence raw and hallucinated. The possibility that early defeat will be decided by minimal numbers can encourage desperate reactions.