Bolsonaro using Argentina’s troubles as election warning
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — As a Brazilian journalist living in Argentina, Luciana Taddeo says she spends evermore effort rebutting ever-crazier rumors.
There were claims that Argentina’s presidential palace had been invaded, that people had to leave keys in their cars’ ignitions so the government could use them at any time, that the government had abolished the right to inherit properties.
“Journalists have been forced to dedicate more and more time to say, ‘Look, this isn’t real, this isn’t happening,’ ” she said.
Many of those rumors have been fanned by the presidential election in neighboring Brazil, where incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro has turned Argentina — already a bitter soccer rival — into a sort of political boogeyman, a warning of the horrors his nation could face if it elects leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro’s
campaign began its nightly ad slot on national television with a blast at Argentina’s left-leaning leaders, who have been friendly with da Silva.
“In Argentina, the leftist candidate that Lula supports also promised barbecue and beer for everybody,” said a voice as images showed people complaining of rising poverty and soaring inflation under center-left President Alberto Fernandez.
Bolsonaro had long used another leftist neighbor — crisis-wracked Venezuela — as a cautionary tale, but shifted to Argentina after Fernandez defeated centerright President Mauricio Macri — whom Bolsonaro favored — in 2019.
“Venezuela was far away and Brazilians didn’t understand it very much; it was a whole other universe,” said Paulo Pereira, coordinator of da Silva’s campaign in Argentina. “Argentina is the country where many Brazilians go on their first international trip.”
While critics focus on Argentina’s persistent high inflation and import controls, its per capita income still outstrips Brazil’s, by World Bank measures at least, and both have relatively low poverty rates by global standards. Brazil’s homicide rate is roughly four times higher than Argentina’s.
The president’s lawmaker son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, used a trip to Argentina this month to take a swipe at Argentina’s rampant inflation. In a video posted on his social media accounts, he is seen counting out dozens of bills to pay for a meal at a restaurant.
“Paying for lunch in Argentina,” he wrote on his Instagram account. “If you don’t want this for Brazil, vote Bolsonaro.”
Brazilians living in Argentina largely agree there’s plenty to criticize: galloping annual inflation of 83%, a stagnant economy and — just as in Brazil — poverty that affects roughly half of the nation’s children.
“The strange thing is that instead of focusing on the real problems that there are already so many of in Argentina, they have to exaggerate even more the situation, which is already serious,” Taddeo said.