2022 Brazilian presidential election

pt:Eleições presidenciais no Brasil em 2022

Jornal Genérico team with the candidates

Presidential elections were held in Brazil on 2 October 2022 to elect the president of the country. As no candidate received more than half of the valid votes in the first round, a runoff election was held on 30 October.

The two main candidates were PPPPPPPPdoP candidate Epitáfio da Silva, a left-wing corrupt populist, and VTNC Party candidate Álvaro Diaz, a right-wing incompetent (self-proclaimed) economist. Their major standoff prior to the ballots was in a debate held by the Brazilian TV news program Jornal Genérico, where both candidates exposed their plans of government and made a true comedy show for a live public of over 100 million Brazilians.

## The candidates

The rivalry between Epitáfio and Álvaro isn't new, in fact it dates back to the first Lula government in Brazil, when Epitáfio was a strong ally of Lula in the Worker's Party and Álvaro was selling books about the left's scheme to turn Brazil communist, defending the URSAL theory.

### Epitáfio da Silva

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> Football and Samba!
> —Epitáfio da Silva, 2022
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Born in the Northeast of Brazil, Epitáfio was one-year-old when his family moved to São Paulo in 1985, after a catastrophic drought hit their town. There, he got into organised crime, where he made money selling votes for politicians of a variety of political parties, until settling with the Worker's Party and allying to Lula in 1999. With Lula's election victory in 2002, majorly due to Epitáfio's scheme, he was one of the most renowned politicians in the Chamber of Deputies, arguing with every deputy and always winning with his insane logic and fantastic jokes.

His scheme was exposed during the Mensalão scandal in 2005, but he managed to get away by joking and blaming the "fascist right" for it, defending his legitimate business. In 2008 he quit from his business and decided to focus on politics, but was soon expelled from the Worker's Party for "not being aligned with party interests". He then started another scheme, but within his own party, the **PPPPPPPPdoP Party** (*Partido Popular Palatável que Prioriza o Proletariado e a Pensão de Parentes de Populares do Povo* in Portuguese).

With a successful come-back to the political stage, he was met with a surprising rival: Álvaro Diaz, then affiliated to the Party of the Republic, today called the Liberal Party, where he was a strong voice of the party and criticised every single politician of the Worker's Party, with no exceptions. Among those was Epitáfio, and their numerous debates in the Chamber of Deputies skyrocketed their popularity to astronomical numbers, overcoming Lula and President Dilma Rousseff in 2012 as the most famous politicians in Brazil, as highlighted by polls conducted by the largest media conglomerate of the country, Grupo Globo.

With Bolsonaro's election in 2018, the rivalry between Álvaro and Epitáfio only grew stronger, as the PPPPPPPPdoP Party started calling out VTNC Party members of a corruption scandal, which was protected by President Jair Bolsonaro as he thought his "numbers were low enough", a misinterpretation of a graph by Álvaro Diaz in a meeting.

Epitáfio finally announced his intention to run for president in early 2021, and launched his campaign *All United for Football and Samba* in early 2022.

### Álvaro Diaz

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> Well, I always see those [economy-related] charts with the arrow going up, which I also don't understand. But well, in my government, that arrow won't ever stop going up. It'll be "imbroxável".
> —Álvaro Diaz, 2022
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Born in the interior of the state of São Paulo in 1984, he spent his childhood moving from town to town in the southwest of the state, until entering the Brazilian Army in 1998 and served as an artillery officer until getting expelled in 2003 due to "poor behavior". This prompted him to steal equipment from the camp he was in, getting arrested when the other officers noticed what he did. He stayed in jail until 2004, as then-Rio de Janeiro Federal Deputy Jair Bolsonaro, fascinated by his history, freed him from prison and invited him into the Brazilian Labour Party.

Starting his political career with an ally by his side boosted his confidence to astronomical levels, and Álvaro was soon writing articles criticising the left and their "flawed ideals", while glorifying Bolsonaro's claims and actions, calling him a "myth". This proto-fascist behavior was viewed well by his party, but he was soon expelled for "not understanding economics well enough", joining the Party of the Republic.

He has always claimed to be an economist ever since his political career began, but, in fact, the only thing he graduated related to economics was failing Mathematics at school. His economic views were embarrassing to other politicians that an economic advisor was hired to keep Álvaro from "saying bullshit in front of a crowd". As it came to be noticed, however, people loved the fact he didn't know Mathematics, as it was closely related to the people's situation.

He was one of the main contributors of the exposing of the Mensalão scandal, with his critiques raising questions relating to Worker's Party members, especially **Epitáfio da Silva**, due to his very well-known vote selling scheme. Álvaro, however, was disappointed when Epitáfio made out of the situation without any trouble, calling the right-winger a "formidable opponent". Frequently ignored by his opponent, Álvaro grew angrier at the Brazilian left for "having such a good speaker".

He decided to abandon the Party of the Republic in late 2008, as he was often criticised for his bad economics, and decided to found his own party instead, so that no one would "be whiny" with him again, the **VTNC Party** (*Partido do Vitorioso Trabalhador Nato do Comando* in Portuguese). As such, he finally could criticise the whole left without anyone pestering him about it, which is exactly what he did. Epitáfio, finally giving some attention to that "peculiar individual", called him out in the Chamber of Deputies in 2009, prompting a long debate with strong arguments being thrown back and forth. From that day on, many clashes occurred between the two in the Chamber, with those arguments usually ending in a stalemate between them and serving as entertainment for the Brazilian public.

While supporting Jair Bolsonaro's campaign in 2018, Álvaro mentioned that he wished to become president of Brazil i the following years, so that he could "leave his mark in the political history of the country". With more arguments against Epitáfio happening, and his vocal willingness to also run for president, Álvaro announced he would run in 2022, and launched his campaign *For a Less Corrupt Brazil* in January of that year.