Knife attack set to boost Bolsonaro’s Brazil presidential bid
SAO PAULO: Right-wing Brazilian election front-runner Jair Bolsonaro looks set to make a dramatic rise from the emergency room to the presidency, family and analysts predicted on Friday, a day after he was stabbed while campaigning.
Brazil’s presidential race took the latest in a series of twists on Thursday when a left-wing activist, claiming to be on “a mission from God,” knifed Bolsonaro as he campaigned in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
The former army captain immediately underwent surgery for multiple wounds to his midsection and is convalescing for at least a week in a Sao Paulo hospital — but his temporary incapacity is expected to boost rather than harm his chances.
“A message to these bandits: they’ve just elected the new president, and that will be right from the first round,” said Bolsonaro’s son and fellow politician Flavio.
Last week Bolsonaro was catapulted to leading candidate in the Oct 7 first round, when jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was barred from standing by the country’s electoral court.
“The attack against Bolsonaro, already boosted by Lula’s disqualification, will have a direct impact on voter intention,” said political analyst Jimena Blanco. She says it would ‘diminish’ Bolsonaro’s ‘high rejection level’ — 44 per cent of the people in a new poll said they would never vote for him — and earn him more support.