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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   477 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 12, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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On the 6th of October, Brazil will hold elections for the mayors and councillors of its 5570 municipalities. Of these, São Paulo, as the largest city in the country (and of the largest in the world) is the most important one, with 9 candidates of varying odds currently on the running, with a run-off being almost certain. Current leftist president Lula is supporting the federal deputy Guilherme Boulos, the runner up of the 2020 mayoral election, and Bolsonaro is supporting current mayor Ricardo Nunes, after his predecessor left office and died of cancer. Neither of these candidates, however, are relevant to this story today.

José Luiz Datena, known as Datena, is a TV presenter, of the sensationalist variety. He used to be popular in right-wing circles (though he was for 23 affiliated with Lula's PT), especially for his "a good thief is a dead thief" takes and evangelical background, even being a Bolsonaro supporter. However, he shifted to a more left-wing position, having supported Lula in the 2022 election and criticizing several right wing politicians since then. He is running for mayor as part of PSDB (with low support on the polls), which used to be one of the largest parties of the nation, being the main opposition to Lula and Dilma (and the previous governing party) before being replaced by Bolsonaro, only still having sucess in the state of São Paulo (a good enough prize, as the largest state of the country), with Bruno Covas, the mayor that Nunes replaced, being from the party (with its multi-party system, it is very common for the deputy mayor, governor or president in Brazil to belong to another party). The current front-runner (though with a long way to gain the run-off) is Pablo Marçal, a influencer coach that manages to outshine Bolsonaro in controversy and criminal accusations, from scams and fake news to money laundering and almost getting people killed on a mountain hiking expedition, besides his right-wing takes, running for the also controversial PRTB, attacking everyone else in the running (including their supporters like Lula and Bolsonaro) and being also attacked in turn.

Yesterday, TV Cultura held a debate with the various candidates. During one of its turns, Marçal accused Datena of being part of a communist plot, and demanded he stopped clowning around. Datena responded that Marçal was a criminal and a slanderer. In his reply, Marçal accused Datena of being a chicken, mentioned a previous debate on which the presenter came to his face and almost slapped him, to which Datena responded by running up to him and hitting him with a chair, as all hell broke lose (link here https://youtube.com/watch?v=nv3jXHWEUWg). Datena was removed from the debate, and Marçal went to the hospital. Most people online had their usual reaction depending on their political spectrum, and the other candidates criticized both Datena and Marçal. Personally, I'm torn, as this showcases just how far my country has deteriorated and Datena should be on jail already, however, it's not like this deterioration hasn't been a long time coming and, despite this not being rdrama.net, this was also hilarious.

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