Lula brands Bolsonaro 'tiny little dictator' in Brazil TV debate

[Judi Lynn]

Leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calls incumbent Jair Bolsonaro a ‘shameless liar’ who ‘fooled around’ with Covid causing huge fatalities

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Sun 16 Oct 2022 23.04 EDT

The leftist frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president branded the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, “a tiny little dictator” and “the king of fake news and stupidity” during a television debate that will help define the political future of one of the world’s biggest democracies.

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who nearly beat Bolsonaro in the presidential election’s first round in September, admonished his opponent over his handling of Covid and soaring Amazon deforestation during the feisty two-hour encounter.

“The fact is that your negligence ensured that 680,000 people died – more than half of whom could have been saved,” Lula told Bolsonaro, whose sabotage of coronavirus containment measures and vaccination efforts caused global outrage.

“Never before in history was there a government that fooled around with a pandemic or with death as you did,” Lula, 76, said of Bolsonaro, who belittled Covid as “a little flu” and claims he has not been vaccinated.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/17/lula-brands-bolsonaro-tiny-little-dictator-in-brazil-tv-debate