Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right frontrunner who deserved tag ‘Trump of the Tropics’ formally entered a race for Brazil presidential chair, MailOnline reported.
A Brazilian politician and former army officer called ‘Trump of the Tropics’ is in second place in the polls, officially kicked off his campaign on Sunday. The 63-year-old far-right congressman declared himself a candidate to about 3,000 cheering supporters at a rally in Rio de Janeiro.
The Social Liberal Party (PSL) nominee seen as a lightweight in Brazilian politics, Mr Bolsonaro will have less than 10 seconds of airtime for his TV campaign ads. Despite this serious handicap in the presidential race,
“We don’t have a big party. We don’t have election funding. We don’t have television time. But we have what the others don’t have, which is you, the Brazilian people,”
a candidate assured his supporters on Sunday. He has also come under fire for praising Brazil’s former military dictatorship and only has the backing of a minor party. At the same time, PSL nominee also has made headlines with provocative comments against minorities, saying he could not love a gay son and telling a congresswoman she did not deserve to be raped.
Bolsonaro’s anti-corruption message and vows to loosen gun controls to fight crime resonate deeply in the city, where a crime wave has prompted the federal government to intervene in the state’s security. A massive corruption scandal at Petrobras that has saddled the state-controlled oil giant with billions in debt has also weighed on the city.
On Sunday, Bolsonaro promised his supporters that he is going to get rid of corruption, but some surveys suggest that while many Brazilians see him as the man to take control of crime and corruption, he also has a high rejection rate which could make it tricky for him to win if the vote were to go into a run-off.
