The once unthinkable risk that the far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro could become Brazil’s president is now real. The danger he poses to democracy is immense. The millions of Brazilians, particularly women, who have turned out to urge “not him” in mass protests know what is at stake. They are not merely anxious: they are, rightly, frightened. Yet his support has only increased in recent weeks. Polls put him around 10 points ahead of his nearest rival, Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ party (PT), in Sunday’s first round of voting, and suggest he could even win an expected runoff later this month.
To call him Latin America’s Donald Trump, as some have, is much too kind. Mr Bolsonaro is a misogynist and homophobe whose views on indigenous communities and the environment are every bit as grim. He praises torturers and the military dictatorship that ran Brazil from 1964 to 1985. He recently called for political opponents to be shot. His bigotry is portrayed as “honesty”.
