Brazil’s ‘third way’ candidates gear up to challenge Bolsonaro
Choice beyond hard right’s radicalism and left’s corruption scandals in next year’s polls
With just over a year until presidential polls, Brazil’s political landscape is increasingly dominated by two polarising figures: incumbent hard-right leader Jair Bolsonaro and former leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The stark choice between the two men has prompted a push by moderates to establish a “third way” candidate — a centrist who can appeal to voters disillusioned with the radicalism of the far right and the history of corruption under Lula’s Workers’ party.
“Brazil urgently needs a project for the country. The third way should start not from personalities, but from the identification of agendas that are not represented by either [Lula or Bolsonaro],” said Alessandro Vieira, a senator with the centrist Citizenship party.
The movement, however, still lacks a single breakout star to unify supporters. Given that both Lula and Bolsonaro can depend on loyal support bases, a wide field of third way candidates would split the vote and reduce the chance of any centrist progressing to the runoff in Brazil’s two-round voting system.
Here are the key figures positioning themselves to become the “neither Lula nor Bolsonaro” candidate ahead of party primaries early next year.
