How can Brazil’s next president unite the country?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brazil is voting to elect a new president. On the ballot is the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known almost universally as Lula, a fiery leftist who was Brazil’s president from 2002 to 2010.
Bolsonaro is a former army officer with solid conservative views. Lula is very left leaning and in favour of protecting the environment.
Their contrasting policies on issues such as the economy, law and order, family values, and the environment, have polarised the country.
Whoever wins will lead a country with deep divisions.
So this week on The Inquiry we are asking: How can Brazil’s next president unite the country?
Presented by David Baker Produced by Annabel Deas and Louise Clarke-Rowbotham Researched by Chris Blake Mixed by Nicky Edwards The editor is Tara McDermott and the production co-ordinator is Jacqui Johnson
(Image: Towels with images of presidential candidates Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro are displayed in a street stand to be sold in downtown Sao Paulo: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the sound of crowd signs. |
| 0:02.4 | We shoot a laser beam at this atom. |
| 0:05.1 | Is that a big canister of oxygen in the background? |
| 0:07.7 | Oh, there's a wasp in there. |
| 0:09.3 | Yeah, perhaps possibly the most disgusting thing I've heard this way. |
| 0:13.6 | But it's one of the nicest fun facts you're going to hear today. |
| 0:16.4 | So here I'm actually holding a doughnut. |
| 0:18.4 | What are you going to do with that? |
| 0:19.2 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:22.9 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service, with me, David Baker. |
| 0:28.8 | Each week, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer. |
| 0:35.9 | This weekend Brazil goes to the polls to elect its next president. |
| 0:40.6 | Home to more than 200 million people and covering an area the size of the United States, |
| 0:46.1 | what happens in South America's largest country has implications not only for Brazil, |
| 0:51.4 | but outside its borders too. |
| 0:53.6 | Going head-to-head are two very different politicians. |
| 0:57.7 | The left-wing Luis Sinacio Lula de Silva, known almost universally as Lula, |
| 1:03.2 | who led the country from 2003 to 2010, and the present incumbent Jaya Bolsonaro, |
| 1:10.4 | an avowed conservative whose motto is Brazil above everything, God above all. |
| 1:17.7 | Their policies have polarized the country, with rival supporters even resorting to violence. |
| 1:25.1 | So this week on the inquiry, we're asking, how can Brazil's next president unite the country? |
| 1:32.9 | Part one, a divided nation. |
... |
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