Brazil: former Chamber president says Bolsonaro will defeat Lula in presidential election by wide margin among evangelicals

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In an article published on the website Poder360, former president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, Eduardo Cunha, analyzes the electoral scenario of what he calls the “evangelical vote.”

According to Cunha, “it is very unlikely that Lula will be able to catch up with Bolsonaro in this segment.”

According to the former parliamentarian, socioeconomic issues are also factors that affect the lives of the electorate in question. However, he points out that the customs agenda will undoubtedly play a role.

Cunha says that the PT (Lula da Silva’s leftist Worker’s Party) will not abandon the flags it has vigorously defended since its inception. He also asserts that there is “senseless discrimination” against evangelicals, to the point of treating them like aliens, “different from everyone else.”

For him, this only leads more and more evangelicals to vote only for candidates who belong to the same religion or who at least profess the fundamental principles defended by the Section, such as the protection of life and the family.

In another part of the article, the politician says that the PT’s “political opportunism toward evangelicals no longer has any appeal.”

“Always on the eve of elections, the party tries to show itself as what it is not, just to get votes,” he added.

STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE

“Evangelical” is an umbrella term that encompasses numerous Protestant denominations that share several core tenets.

These include the perception of the Bible as the ultimate moral and historical authority, the desire to evangelize and spread the faith, and the need for a religious conversion known as being “born again”.

Among Christian groups, those who define themselves as evangelical tend to be much more conservative and against progressive values than those who do not define themselves with that label.

In the history of the IBGE Census, in 1980, Catholics were 89.9% of the population, and evangelicals 6.6%. In the most recent survey, in 2010, the ratio was 64.6% to 22.2%.