'Tropical Trump' Bolsonaro wins Brazil presidential elections

Posted by Maryam Yamin on October 29th, 2018

According to EYE News, The far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro (63) won the second round of the Brazilian presidential election on Sunday. The controversial Bolsonaro thus becomes the new head of state of the South American country.

Around midnight almost all the votes were counted, reports the Brazilian electoral council. Bolsonaro can count on 55 per cent of the votes, and with this, he has won with considerable distance from his leftist challenger, Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT).

The former mayor of São Paulo received 45 per cent of the votes. In total, approximately 147 million Brazilians were allowed to cast a vote. "Brazil!", The new president writes on Twitter, followed by an emoticon from the Brazilian flag and a thumbs up. "There will be no more flirting with socialism, communism, populism and left-wing extremism, now we will lead God" "he said in a message on his Facebook account.

"We knew where Brazil was heading and now we know where we want to go." After his defeat, Haddad left it as his duty to see his electorate defend the "national interests" against the new government. His party had wanted the popular former president Lula da Silva as a presidential candidate, but judges stuck to it.

Lula is in jail because of a corruption judgment. Jair Bolsonaro is a former paratrooper who has been active in Brazilian politics for almost thirty years and has sat in parliament for about ten different parties.

In Western media, the right-wing populist politician is often described as a 'Tropical Trump'. His ideas also show many similarities with those of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte.

Unlike about three-quarters of his fellow parliamentarians, Bolsonaro is not suspected of being involved in the enormous corruption scandal that has kept Brazilian politics in its grip for years. He promises to tackle corruption, among other things by appointing military personnel in his cabinet and reducing the number of ministries and parliamentarians.