Brazil enters new era with ‘Tropical Trump’

BRAZIL entered a new era on Monday after electing its next president, Jair Bolsonaro, a farright congressman who vowed a fundamental change in direction for the giant Latin American country.

Bolsonaro, who openly admires Brazil’s former military dictatorship and shocked many with his derogatory remarks on women, gays and blacks, won 55 per cent of the vote in a run-off election on Sunday – more than 10 points ahead of leftist opponent Fernando Haddad.

Having channelled voters’ anger with corruption, crime and economic malaise, the man dubbed the “Tropical Trump” will now get down to work seeking to “change Brazil’s destiny” – the promise he made in his victory speech.

Markets reacted positively to the win by the business-world favourite, who will take office on January 1 – though profittaking set in later in the day.

T h e Sa o Pa u l o s t o c k exchange’s main index opened up more than three per cent, after adding 10 per cent in a month as Bolsonaro surged in the polls, before falling 2.24 per cent into the red at the close.

After a deeply polarising election, many Brazilians seem eager to turn the page, hoping for the best as the country takes what even many Bolsonaro supporters acknowledge is a leap into the unknown.

“Maybe now, with this renewal, things will improve in this country,” said Bolsonaro voter Jocemil Clacino, a 66-year-old shopkeeper in Rio de Janeiro.

For Bolsonaro’s opponents, however, t he bitterness runs deep.

“These elections revealed the worst in humanity. People let out everything they had been too afraid to talk about. It made me feel terrible. But we’ll have to carry on,” said Adriana Calvi, 55.

‘What’s a minority?’

Bolsonaro, 63, has outraged many with his overtly misogynistic, homophobic and racist rhetoric.

But he vowed in his first interview as president-elect to govern for all Brazilians.

Asked if he would respect the rights of minorities, he asked, “What’s a minority?”

“We’re all the same. I’m no different from you. I don’t care what colour your skin is, your sexual orientation, where you’re from. We’re the same,” he told TV network Record.

“I think if we achieve that equality for all, everyone will be satisfied.”

He appeared relaxed at his home in Rio, where he has mostly remained since leaving the hospital after an attacker stabbed him in the belly at a rally on September 6.

Bolsonaro said he had spent much of the day on the phone, receiving congratulations from world leaders – though some also urged him to “respect democratic principles,” as French President Emmanuel Macron put it.

Opponents have warned Bolsonaro could try to veer toward authoritarianism, after the former army captain heaped praise on Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship (1964-1985) and its torture of leftist dissidents.

The EU will be expecting Bolsonaro to “work to cons ol i dat e democracy,” EU spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said pointedly.

US President Donald Trump and Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini were more effusive.

Trump tweeted that he had had an “excellent” phone call with Bolsonaro, and Salvini celebrated the fact that “in Brazil too, the people have chased out the left.”

Bolsonaro also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warmly invited him to Israel, the PM’s office said.

In a sign of how far the “pink tide” of left-wing governments that recently dominated Latin America has ebbed, even Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Ecuador’s Evo Morales – two leftist holdouts – sent their congrats.

Bolsonaro is due to fly to Brasilia soon to start the transition process with outgoing Pre s i dent Michel Te mer, though aides did not confirm the timing.