Debate for municipal elections in São Paulo has aggression and proposals on a back seat

Brasil de Fato

On Sunday night (15), during the debate on the Brazilian TV Cultura channel for the São Paulo mayoralty, one of the Latin America wealthiest city, the center-right candidate José Luiz Datena hit the far-right populist Pablo Marçal with a chair after Marçal raised an accusation of sexual harassment against Datena. The incident resulted in the debate being interrupted and Datena being expelled. Marçal asked to leave the debate and was taken to the Sírio Libanês Hospital.    

Due to the aggression, Datena was expelled from the debate. The presenter told the press that the courts had dismissed the case for lack of evidence and that the woman who accused him had retracted her statement publicly and in a notary’s office. “It was an accusation in which the police saw no evidence. The person who accused me publicly retracted the accusation and apologized to me and my family,” said Datena.   

Until Datena’s aggression, Marçal’s well-known behavior of attacking his opponents was overlooked by his opponents. Even candidate Marina Helena took a stand against Marçal when talking about the absence of the former coach’s support for the impeachment bill against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.     

Proposals take a back seat   

Almost all the candidates spoke about the fires that have hit Brazil and made São Paulo’s air quality one of the worst in the world in the past week. Marçal was asked by the mediator about the subject right at the start of the debate. He said that electric cars could help reduce pollution. Datena, for his part, said that public transportation is essential for reducing pollution.      

Marina Helena said that she intends to implement the Green IPTU (municipal property tax) in São Paulo. Through it, citizens would receive tax rebates if they help prepare the city for climate change by planting trees, for example.     

Tabata Amaral took some time to talk about public safety, caretaking, and violence against women. “Everyone who studies public safety knows that crime always happens in the same place. And every woman who walks alone at night knows that opportunity makes the criminal. A dark, dirty city, with broken streets like ours, is a city that naturally sees an increase in rape,” she said.    

The focus was on the current mayor, Ricardo Nunes, whose main clash was with the left wing Guilherme Boulos since both are close to each other and ahead of the other candidates in the polls.   

“Ricardo Nunes is a bit confused. First, he lies about my position. Then, he asks me to comment on another candidate’s proposal. Let’s talk about the things that matter. This week, the ICU at Campo Limpo Hospital completed two months with broken air conditioning. Would you leave one of your relatives in these conditions?” said Boulos when Nunes asked about another candidate’s proposal.   

Nunes, Boulos and Marçal remain tied    

According to a RealTime Big Data poll released early Monday (16), Ricardo Nunes, Guilherme Boulos, and Pablo Marçal remain in a technical tie in the voting intentions for São Paulo City Hall.      

Nunes has 24% of the vote, while Boulos and Marçal have 22% each. The margin of error is three percentage points. Compared to the previous edition of the same institute’s survey, published on September 3, the three candidates showed a slight increase in their scores, although they were already tied. Marçal had 21% of the vote intentions. Boulos and Nunes were on 20%.