The enormous country that is Brazil, and its ensuing vast influence on the continent, could enshrine a shift to the right on Sunday, 25 October, bringing to a close a cycle characterised by the tolerance — when not the outright justification — of left-wing autocracies and dictatorships.
The stakes are of such magnitude that the run-off of the presidential election is marked by increasingly scathing attacks and disqualifications between both candidates.
The acting president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, approaching his 81st birthday, behaved in a particularly disparaging and even violent manner during the debate he held with Flavio Bolsonaro on the country's largest television network, O Globo. Lula went so far as to attack the network by claiming — falsely, as would later be demonstrated — that it had agreed on campaign news content with Bolsonaro.
Temperatures have soared after both candidates announced their intention to file mutual disqualification lawsuits. The reason for this escalation in verbal friction lies in the accusation levelled against the US technological giant Meta of campaign interference.
Specifically, Flavio Bolsonaro accused Lula of "abuse of power" for allegedly and massively disseminating content praising and promoting his government's actions via WhatsApp during the electoral period, which is expressly prohibited.
In turn, Lula da Silva, through his campaign team, asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to disqualify Bolsonaro, alleging "algorithmic manipulation" involving Meta with the aim of harming the acting president, according to the AFP agency.
The same outlet notes that the TSE had given Meta a 24-hour deadline to prove the platform had adopted appropriate measures to ensure equal treatment for both candidates, warning that otherwise the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp would be fined €178,000 per day.
Meta, which denies the accusations, had nevertheless acknowledged experiencing issues such as the "error-driven deactivation" of Lula's campaign ads, though it attributed this to "technical incidents" that affected not only Brazilian territory but also other countries across the Ibero-American continent.
It even cited "recurring glitches" that were allegedly also occurring regarding the midterm elections in the United States, scheduled for 3 November. Meanwhile, Flavio Bolsonaro and his campaign team denounce "an offensive of negative propaganda" backed by Meta against him.
In addition to these mutual accusations and disqualifications, Lula has heightened accusations of interference against the United States after US President Donald Trump hailed Bolsonaro's "fine victory" in the first round (47% - 45%), an accusation he has now also extended to the President of the Argentine Republic, Javier Milei, who reportedly suggested that Brazil's president "might steal the election".
The latest poll, conducted by Alfa Inteligencia, gives Bolsonaro the win next Sunday by a narrow 51.5% against 48.5% of valid votes. The polling agency itself clarifies that blank and null votes are excluded from its calculation, alongside undecided voters. The latter are estimated at around 2%, highlighting how tight the forecast is and the uncertainty of the outcome once counting begins after polling stations close.