On Sunday 18 October, on Band in São Paulo, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) met in the first run-off debate. The vote is 25 October. Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth term. Flávio, 45, is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Jair was not on stage.

They called each other liars. Lula named him a habitual liar and a “thug”, stepped away and said “militiaman” — an allusion, Al Jazeera writes, to alleged ties to Rio paramilitary groups; that is not a conviction. Flávio said distance was wiser, “my wallet could be stolen”. He paced behind his opponent, shaking his head.

Lula asked for an account of a corruption investigation involving the father. Flávio dodged, called him a clown and raised a possible case involving one of the president’s sons. Jair is under house arrest on a 27-year sentence tied to efforts to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to Lula. That is the reported state of play, not a retrial here.

Flávio pressed the cost of living, crime and “reckless” campaign spending. Lula asked whether he wanted cuts like Javier Milei’s in Argentina; Flávio changed the subject. On Covid, in his father’s term, he said it was not where they saw the best results and offered a mea culpa. Lula: the opponent knows buses from books, has never boarded one, does not know the world of work.

G1: three blocks, each with a 15-minute bank. Themes: public security, the economy, health, the age of criminal responsibility, ties with the United States. Datafolha, 15 October: Flávio 47%, Lula 45%. G1 calls it a technical tie. In the first round, on 4 October, Flávio finished about 1.87 points and 2.2 million votes ahead. That is not a verdict on the debate.

Beforehand, Paulista filled with yellow-green; in Brasília, Lula’s supporters in red. Al Jazeera: also on Sunday, federal police asked the Supreme Court to open a money-laundering inquiry into Flávio — a request, not an opening. The candidate is already under investigation, AJ says, over ties to Daniel Vorcaro. Lula spent 580 days in prison in 2018–19; the conviction was later annulled.

A second debate is set for 23 October, on Globo. About 33 million stayed home in the first round. We are not picking a winner from Sunday night on Band.

Image: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, Palácio do Planalto, Brasília, 4 May 2013, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not Band’s studio on 18 October.

Sources consulted: Lula and Bolsonaro spar in Brazil’s fiery first presidential run-off debate — Al Jazeera; No 1º debate, Lula e Flávio Bolsonaro trocam acusações e provocações — G1.