Bolsonaro’s wife woos the women

Brasilia – President Jair Bolsonaro has a problem heading into Brazil’s October elections: he is unpopular with a demographic that makes up more than half the electorate – women.

Step in First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, pictured, his devoutly Christian and increasingly politicised wife, who is emerging as a powerful weapon in his campaign.

Seeking a new four-year term, the far-right leader dubbed the “Tropical Trump” is trailing in the polls to his nemesis, leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). Lula led Bolsonaro by 44% to 31% in a 5 May poll from research institute Ipespe, for example. Among women, the score was 47%-25%.

Bolsonaro, 67, has long struggled with women voters. In his 2018 campaign, he was the target of a women-led movement called #EleNao – “not him” – launched by critics who accuse him of misogyny and machismo.

With the next election looming, 40-year-old Michelle, Bolsonaro’s third wife, is stepping into the spotlight.

Last Sunday she gave a nationally televised address for Mother’s Day. “Being a mom is a full-time job... the most divine responsibility of all,” she beamed, reeling off a list of measures she said the Bolsonaro administration has taken to benefit women.

The first lady has also gone viral on social media, with emotionally charged clips that galvanise her fellow evangelical Christians – a powerful group that represents 31% of the population.

The first lady gave birth to their daughter, Laura, in 2010. Bolsonaro, who has four sons from previous marriages, said he had a “moment of weakness and fathered a girl”.

It is one on a long list of what critics call his misogynistic remarks, such as in 2014, when he told a fellow member of Congress she was “not worth raping” because she was “too ugly”. –