Bolsonaro suffers wave of defeats in municipal races
SAO PAULO — President Jair Bolsonaro suffered big losses in Brazil’s justcompleted municipal elections, with only five mayoral candidates he supported winning their races and none of them in the most important cities.
The president’s worst rebuff came in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, where Mayor Marcelo Crivella was battered in a runoff election Sunday, losing to his centerright predecessor, Eduardo Paes, by 64% to 36%. Crivella, an evangelical pastor, repeatedly used the president in his campaign to try to raise his fortunes.
Another big defeat for Bolsonaro came in Fortaleza, Brazil’s fifth most populous city, where little known centerleft candidate Sarto Nogueira topped Wagner Gomes, the president’s favorite, 51.5% to 48.5%.
A Bolsonaro candidate also lost in Belem, one of the capitals of the Amazon. Leftist Edmilson Rodrigues edged Everaldo Iguchi and will be the city’s mayor for a third time.
The poor showing by Bolsonaro’s candidates began shaping up in the first round of municipal elections two weeks ago.
Sao Paulo, a metropolis of more than 12 million people that is Brazil’s biggest city, gave just 10% of its vote to Bolsonaro’s candidate, Celso Russomanno, who finished fourth. Sunday’s runoff was between two critics of the president, and resulted in centerright Mayor Bruno Covas easily winning reelection over socialist Guilherme Boulos by 60% to 40%.
Other candidates supported by Bolsonaro also failed to make it into Sunday’s runoffs after losing by wide margins in populated state capitals like Belo Horizonte, Recife and Manaus. His candidate also lost in Santos, one of the most important cities of Sao Paulo state.
“Bolsonaro is clearly the biggest loser of the mayoral races,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University. “He failed to start a party, he failed to make his candidates stronger. It was almost as if he ignored these elections, but they gave a lot of leverage to parties he will have to talk to in congress. He is a weaker president because of these defeats.”
Eduardo Paes, the winner in Rio, said his triumph was “a victory of politics over radicalism.”