Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday he would stick to tough rhetoric in the second round of Brazil’s bitterly contested presidential election, after his strong win in first-round voting sent financial markets soaring.
Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and veteran lawmaker, nearly won the presidency outright on Sunday, taking 46 percent of votes against leftist Fernando Haddad’s 29 percent — part of a dramatic swing to the right in Latin America’s largest nation.
As neither candidate won an outright majority, Bolsonaro will face Haddad, the former mayor of Sao Paulo representing the Workers Party (PT), in an Oct. 28 second-round vote.
Some Bolsonaro supporters called on him to moderate his message to ensure victory, but the candidate said he would stick to hardline rhetoric on crime and corruption that has resonated with voters. The world’s fifth most populous country has been roiled by years of rising crime, recession and graft scandals.
“I can’t turn into a Little ‘Peace and Love’ Jair, which would be betraying who I am,” Bolsonaro said in a radio interview. “I have to keep being the same person.”
His words were a thinly veiled swipe at former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dropped his fiery leftist rhetoric to win the presidency in 2002, dubbing himself the ‘Peace and Love’ candidate.
Lula, who founded the Workers Party and was president until 2010, is serving 12 years in prison for a bribery conviction.
Reflecting confidence that he will win the second round, Bolsonaro said he had already begun talks with other lawmakers in Congress to build an eventual governing coalition. That raised expectations of swift, market-friendly reforms.
Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index jumped 4 percent, led by double-digit gains by state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA and state power companies, which Bolsonaro advisers have said they will privatize.
Markets have cheered Bolsonaro’s advance toward the presidency since his recent conversion to free-market ideas under the tutelage of University of Chicago-trained economist Paulo Guedes. Signs that Bolsonaro could win enough support in Congress to push through his agenda added to enthusiasm.
“Part of the market’s excitement comes from the renovation in Congress. Regardless of party, that renovation provides hope,” said Pablo Syper, head of trading at Mirae Asset Global Investimentos.
Bolsonaro’s popularity surged as exasperated Brazilians decided he represents the best chance to turn back a wave of violent crime and dismantle what prosecutors call the world’s largest political graft scheme.
But his track record of fiery anti-democratic rhetoric, calls for police to kill as many criminals as possible and opposition to legalizing abortion and gay marriage have put others on edge.