Brazil's free TV and radio campaign airtime for the presidential race begins on Saturday (29). Lula (PT) will press the "Dark Horse" case against Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). The senator, for his part, will bet on rising prices and household debt to wear down the government, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
Under the rotation drawn by the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, Flávio's program opens the slot and Lula's closes it. The Workers' Party candidate gets 5 minutes and 31 seconds, against 4 minutes and 20 seconds for his rival. The gap comes from coalitions: Lula added to PT's time the minutes of PSOL, Rede, PC do B, PV, PSB and PDT, while Flávio runs with PL alone. Airtime is proportional to the size of each party's caucus in Congress.
Police record sheet and music clip
According to Folha, Lula's first program will include attacks on his opponent. The senator's biography will be presented like a police record sheet. The program is expected to recall Flávio's conversations with banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, to finance "Dark Horse", a biographical film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. It should also mention the old rachadinha accusations, a salary kickback scheme, from his time as a state lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro. Lula allies told the paper the offensive will not take up most of the program and will appear more often in the shorter radio and TV spots. O Globo reported that the PT campaign was still debating whether the president would attack already in the debut, and that a specific offensive on the film and on the Bolsonaro family's real estate deals is being saved for later programs.
The program will also mix a defense of the government's record with proposals for an eventual new term. Lula's life story will appear as a music clip, from his poor childhood to his entry into politics as a union leader and his three terms as president, O Globo reported. Women will have a prominent place, with references to fighting femicide. The recordings were made at a house in Lago Sul, an upscale Brasília district that houses the campaign's communications headquarters.
Supermarket stage and end-of-month bills
On the PL side, the debut will have a lighter tone. Flávio recorded part of his material in a supermarket, a setting chosen to talk about food prices, fuel, household debt and loss of purchasing power, according to O Globo. Allies sum up the debut's two axes as the fear of "leaving home without having your phone stolen" and the question of "how they will pay the bills at the end of the month". The candidate's economic team is drafting a proposal for indebted families, to be detailed by the senator himself. Campaign members cite the judicial recovery of retailer Casas Bahia as an image that reinforces the message that companies and families are struggling.
Jair Bolsonaro will have relevant space in his son's debut. Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro will make only a brief appearance. Running mate Alfredo Gaspar (PL) will appear on public security. São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) is scheduled for later programs. PL is saving for later the investigations involving Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the president's son.
The order and duration of Saturday's programs are already set by the TSE. The topics of the next pieces are still to be decided by both campaigns, which are calibrating the dosage of attacks based on qualitative polls.