The first round of the Brazilian presidential election takes place on Sunday. It is ostensibly between two major candidates -- the incumbent president, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and on the right, Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsanaro who is currently under house arrest in poor health.
Politico seems to be portraying President Donald Trump as the real opposition to the socialist Lula. Politico's obsession with Trump in Brazil begins with the title of their Thursday story by Camille Gus, "A new Bolsonaro could pull Brazil away from Europe — and toward Trump."
The election comes as Brussels seeks to deepen ties with friendly countries in response to an onslaught of Chinese exports and U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionism. Brazil — a nation of 213 million people, rich in critical minerals and Mercosur’s largest economy — is key to that effort.
The concern in Brussels is that a Flávio Bolsonaro presidency would make the Mercosur trade agreement more politically toxic in Europe while drawing Brasília closer to Washington — where Trump has cast himself as a staunch ally of the Bolsonaro family.
“There is a clear sense that if Bolsonaro wins, Brazil will become closer to the United States,” said Welber Barral, Brazil’s foreign trade secretary during Lula’s second term from 2007 to 2011.
Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year after Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted him of leading a coup attempt to overturn his 2022 election defeat. The case has been a source of tension between the U.S. and Brazil, with Trump citing the “politically motivated persecution” of Bolsonaro Sr. when he imposed a 40% duty on Brazilian goods.
Politico clearly feels empathy for the European socialists and Greens and their wishes for a trade agreement to consolidate their leftist goals.
The interesting thing about this story is that although Camille Gus has focused upon Trump, she completely avoided any mention of the huge corruption scandal that has overshadowed the presidential election involving Lula's political ally, the judge who ordered the arrest of former president Bolsonaro, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. So important is this scandal and its impact on the election that even the leftist New York Times felt compelled to report on it on September 24 in, "The High-Stakes Corruption Scandal Shaking Up Brazil’s Election."
...an explosive scandal linking Justice Moraes to a disgraced banker at the center of a multibillion dollar fraud scheme has plunged Brazil’s highest court into a crisis, reshaping a narrow presidential election just weeks away. The crisis began when another justice made public a damning police dossier suggesting that Justice Moraes may have exchanged dozens of messages with the banker, Daniel Vorcaro.
In texts apparently sent to Justice Moraes, Mr. Vorcaro asked for help avoiding arrest. In other exchanges with associates, Mr. Vorcaro mentioned paying millions to a law firm run by the justice’s wife.
...overnight, the revelation has become a major electoral issue, outraging Brazilians and setting off calls to hold Justice Moraes and the Supreme Court accountable.
Got that? Even the New York Times has labeled this as a "major electoral scandal." Something that Camille Gus has somehow managed to overlook but, hey, at least she remained focused on Politico's White (or Orange) Whale ...Trump.
