No tolerance for sexist candidate
Brazilian women protest in force against presidential frontrunner Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO: Hundreds of thousands of women turned out for a wave of nationwide protests in Brazil against the candidacy of the right-wing frontrunner in next week’s presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro.
The controversial Bolsonaro, who was released from hospital on Saturday after being stabbed and seriously wounded by a leftwing activist during a rally on Sept 6, is currently leading in opinion polls.
Marches organised by a social media campaign under the hashtag #EleNao (Not Him) began in earnest in dozens of cities including Rio de Janeiro, where thousands of women converged at vast Cinelandia square, to be joined by a column of others marching from the Avenida Rio Branco, a major thoroughfare, it was reported.
Small groups took to the streets even earlier in Sao Paulo and other locations. Demonstrations also took place abroad, from Dublin and Paris to Budapest and Beirut. Superstar Madonna proclaimed her solidarity with the cause in an Instagram post that included the hashtag #endfascism.
The Time’s Up movement which supports victims of sexual abuse tweeted its support: “To our sisters in Brazil: We are all in this together. We see you and hear you. We are with you.”
“Women of Brazil, women outside Brazil, all women, it’s time to join in,” said Ludimilla Teixeira, one of the march organisers.
“Either we join now to fight or we’re going to gather to mourn later.”
By the time the women headed home, organisers said that at least a half million took part. Police did not offer figures.
Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former army captain, has been branded racist, misogynist and homophobic by his detractors.
He has specifically angered women by seeking to justify a yawning gender wage gap, and has argued against employing women if it was likely they would become pregnant.
Bolsonaro further inflamed his opponents on Friday by saying he would accept no outcome in the Oct7 balloting but his own victory. “From what I see on the streets, I do not accept any election result that is not my election,” he said in an interview with a local television network.
That drew a withering response from opponents.
Centre-left candidate Ciro Gomes said that Bolsonaro would be “striking a blow against our democracy” and that the best antidote was “not to vote Bolsonaro in the first round in order to protect Brazil from a leap into the abyss.”
The women’s campaign, launched on Facebook in early September, called on women of all political persuasions to come together “against the advancement and strengthening of machismo, misogyny, racism, homophobia and other prejudice.”
“We cannot allow fascism to advance in Brazil,” Teixeira said, calling Bolsonaro a “disastrous” candidate.
Beatriz Lorena, 33, said the colourful crowd of all types represented Brazil’s diversity, while Bolsonaro and his style did not.
“You see white people, black people here, gays and straights, mothers and fathers with their kids. All kinds of diverse families,” she stressed, warning that Bolsonaro “is outside Brazil’s cultural mainstream.”