美国国家公共电台 NPR Brazil To Go To The Polls Amid A Surge Of The Far Right

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

If you have been monitoring the rise of populist nationalism around the world, you can now turn attention to Brazil. Brazilians will be voting for their next president on Sunday, and the candidates include Jair Bolsonaro. He's a retired 1 army captain. He is surging ahead in the polls, and he's running from the far-right. NPR's Philip Reeves has been monitoring this moment in Brazil, and he joins us on the line from Rio de Janeiro this morning. Hi, Phil.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE 2: Hi.

GREENE: So what can you tell us about this man?

REEVES: Well, he positions himself as an outsider, but he's actually a veteran congressman 3. He spent 25 years - more than 25 years, actually, in Congress. Until recently, he was a pretty marginal figure. He's not any longer, though. He's age 63. He's close to the military, and he's a divisive figure. He has a record of making offensive remarks about the LGBT community, about black Brazilians and about women who took to the streets, David, in huge numbers last weekend, summoned there by women's group - campaigning online and using the hashtag #NotHim (ph). Now, one of the messages that came from those demonstrations 4 is that people are worried that Bolsonaro will take Brazil back to the era when it was a military dictatorship. That dictatorship ended in 1985, and Bolsonaro has frequently expressed admiration 5 for it.

GREENE: Wow. So despite those warnings about where he might take the country, though, it sounds like - I mean, he's been surging in the polls and has a pretty good shot of becoming president, right?

REEVES: Yes. I mean, until now, people have been saying that, you know, he would - he was ahead in the - this race, but it would go to a second round runoff between the top two candidates and that he would probably lose that. They'd use the poll as evidence to back that argument. But the latest poll show this big surge. In fact, yesterday there was a poll showing him 13 points ahead. It's still unlikely that there won't be a second round, that he'll win outright 6. But people - some commentators 7 are beginning to say that could happen, which if it did happen would be a political earthquake.

GREENE: So a political earthquake achieved by a man who you have said is divisive - I mean, you say is very controversial. I mean, these protests by women saying, I mean, terrible things about him. What do people like about him? What can we attribute this rise in the polls to?

REEVES: Well, I think people here crave 8 law and order particularly. I mean, if you talk to middle-class educated Brazilians, a lot of them say, look, we feel we have no choice. They've lost faith in the political system here. There's been this massive corruption 9 scandal that's rolling on. It's exposed top executives and particularly top politicians as crooks 10, and that's really corroded 11 their faith in the political establishment. And people are also, David, really worried about crime. I mean, if you watch the TV or look at your WhatsApp groups, there's endless pictures of gangsters 12 blowing up bank machines and attacking people. This country had more than 60,000 homicides last year.

And so along comes Bolsonaro, and he talks about packing his cabinet with generals. He talks about giving guns to the public or at least allowing the public to bear arms. And he praises the police for using lethal 13 force. And people are turning to him, seeing him as, you know, the only option in desperate times. He's also done a very good job, I must say, of vilifying 14 his opponents. Bolsonaro has spent more than three weeks of his campaign in hospital after being stabbed a month ago. He's now out. But during that time, his campaign have been pounding hard at his main opponent, who is from the leftist Workers’ Party, Fernando Haddad. And they've been attacking him hard.

GREENE: NPR's Philip Reeves. Thanks, Phil.