Brazil’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad election
Latin America’s biggest democracy is facing its most fraught time in recent memory, and Jair Bolsonaro is right in the thick of it
Family used to be a safe space for Mauro Palermo. The Rio de Janeiro publishing executive and father of two girls fondly recalls Sundays at his grandparent’s home, where no matter who was running Brazil, siblings and cousins gathered to joke, gossip and settle the world’s problems over ham-and-cheese and cashew juice. That domestic idyll vanished with the 2018 election. Mind you, family elders did their best to keep the peace earlier this month when Palermo’s aunt celebrated her 70th birthday on the eve of the first round of voting. But with splenetic right-wing army captain Jair Bolsonaro leading the race and now favored in a run-off with former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, an 11th-hour stand-in for the scandal-soaked leftist Workers’ Party, the truce couldn’t last. As soon as the celebration ended Palermo’s cousin took to Facebook to “disown” the family for its support of Bolsonaro. A Workers’ Party sympathiser, he claimed to speak for his sister, a lesbian, who although never...
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