President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at a campaign rally in Florianópolis on Saturday (Sept. 19) that he wants to win the presidential election to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro behind bars. "Flávio wants to win the election to get his father out of jail, and I want to win to keep him in jail," Lula said, in remarks reported by Valor Econômico and InfoMoney.
He was referring to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his rival in the race. According to G1, the former president is under house arrest after the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, convicted him of attempting a coup d'état. Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro held simultaneous rallies in Santa Catarina, a Bolsonaro stronghold according to G1, two weeks before the first round.
Lula tied the attack to the scheme that took irregular deductions from pensions paid by the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. "They created the INSS gang that stole from retirees, and we uncovered it," he said. According to the president, the Federal Police and the Comptroller General's Office investigated the case for two years; losses reached 6 billion reais and the government has repaid about 3.5 billion reais to 5 million retirees. He also said that Flávio Bolsonaro's office operates in the same suite as one of the suspects, known as "Careca do INSS".
Pressure on the top court
The president also demanded that the STF investigate everyone linked to banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master. "Bolsonaro turned Vorcaro into a banker, and we turned him into a prisoner. I want the Supreme Court to investigate everyone," Lula said. "If we do not do this, we will not fix this country."
"We will leave everyone naked before Brazilian society, because we deserve to know the truth."
According to Valor, Vorcaro's ties to STF justices triggered an institutional crisis at the court. On Tuesday (Sept. 15), a session set to decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes' possible connection to the banker was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time, leaving the merits untouched.
A Datafolha poll released Thursday (Sept. 17) shows Lula with 48% and Flávio Bolsonaro with 44% of vote intentions in a runoff, within a two-point margin of error, the same figures as the institute's two previous surveys. According to Folha's Painel column, both candidates will alternate campaign stops between the Northeast and the Southeast regions in the final two weeks before the vote.