Democratic Movement presidential candidate Simone Tebet waves during a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro September 22, 2022. Bruna Prado (AP)
The candidate, Simone Tebet, 52 years old, is the surprise of these Brazilian elections, which have been conducted by two white men with gray hair since the beginning of the campaign. With 90% of the votes counted, the senator, who attracted attention in the television debates despite significantly less political experience than her opponents, took third place with over 4%. That corresponds to 4.8 million votes in Brazil. Tebet was the only new face in the front runners of these elections, beating a politician who has survived a thousand battles like Ciro Gomes, former minister of Lula da Silva, with more than 95% of the vote.
His three opponents have been in public life for more than three decades. She, who belongs to the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), debuted as a senator two terms ago and previously held a high position in the government of Mato Grosso, country of the powerful agricultural sector.
Born in Tres Lagoas (Mato Grosso), the composure and preparation she has shown in televised debates with three veterans like Lula, Bolsonaro and Gomes has put her on the radar of many Brazilians who want far-right Bolsonaro to go but want themselves refuse Give Lula the blank vote for a third term.
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Tebet is considered an agribusiness candidate and acknowledged this herself in the last debate. But that didn’t stop her from being remarkably concerned about the environmental issue. During this face-to-face meeting, he recalled that the effects of climate change are already being felt in his country because it rains less.
Tebet is the latest bet by those who have been trying for two years to forge the so-called Third Way, an alternative candidate to Bolsonaro and the left represented by Lula.
Most of his compatriots first noticed Tebet during the televised meetings of the commission of inquiry into the pandemic.
There she was already showing the tables she later raised in the debates when she told President Bolsonaro last week that he lacked the courage to deal with important issues instead of trying to divert attention to the party and attack the workers (PT ).
Her steadfastness in the debates will stand her in good stead in the elections. Tebet is also a political rarity in a country where men comfortably dominate politics and the positions derived from it.
Brazil has only had one president, the left-wing Dilma Rousseff, who ended the worst in 2016 as the victim of an impeachment trial. She has not yet recovered from this traumatic experience. And his passage through the Planalto Palace did little to change one of the great debts of Latin America’s largest democracy: only 15% of public offices are held by women.
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