A battle at the last vote is announced between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro in view of the runoff on October 30 in Brazil, where another four weeks of arson campaign has begun, raising the tension further.
The former left-wing president - who finished the first round of the presidential elections ahead with 48% of the valid votes - will have the important support of the defeated candidates, in particular the centrist Simone Tebet and the progressive Ciro Gomes, who finished third and respectively. fourth.
But even the outgoing right-wing leader - who, upsetting all predictions, obtained 43%, shattering the former trade unionist's dream of immediately closing the electoral game - is expanding the parterre of alliances and now aims to convince the most skeptical.
Lula "
Hence the importance of convincing the voters of Tebet and Gomes, who together totaled almost 8.2 million votes.
The financial markets are also preparing for the possible victory of the former worker-president, hoping for "moderate" choices in the economic field and waiting to know the name chosen by Lula for his future Ministry of Economy.
The most welcome would be Henrique Meirelles, former president of the central bank, says the expert of the Globo group, Carlos Alberto Sardenberg.
For his part, Bolsonaro can count on the support of the governors (and, potentially, of the respective parties) of the country's most important states, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, which are also the three largest constituencies.
The support of the outgoing governor of São Paulo, Rodrigo García,
he took his party Psdb (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) off guard, which until now had remained in opposition to Bolsonaro.
So much so that even its historic leader, former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, today took a clear stand in favor of Lula.
Equally decisive for the former army captain may prove to be the support of the two re-elected governors of Minas and Rio, respectively Romeu Zema, of the Partido Novo, and Claudio Castro, of the Liberal Party (the same as Bolsonaro).
But it may not be enough, forcing him to seek votes among the undecided.
Even if it is really "difficult to count on the electorate who abstained", observes Professor Bueno.
Finally, we must consider the terrain of religious faith, on which this no-holds-barred challenge has resulted.
Lula will try to gain a grip on the Catholic world, after rejecting her fakes about her alleged links with Satanism.
Bolsonaro, on the other hand, is already closing the ranks of the Pentecostal electorate, relying on the morality factor ("we are good against evil",