RIO DE JANEIRO – With only ten days left before the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil, Chilean right-wing senators have been visiting ultra-rightwing candidate Jair Bolsonaro. According to the polls in Brazil, Bolsonaro is to become the next Brazilian president. After UDI-president Van Rysselberghe, today José Antonio Kast will visit.
On the 28th of October, millions of Brazilians will vote for their next president, but the elections seem to become anything but a head-to-head race. According to the last polls, Bolsonaro has a lead of 59 percent, leaving leftwing candidate Fernando Haddad far behind. The biggest country in South-America is about to have an ultra-rightwing president. Chilean senators with the same ideological direction have been visiting the Bolsonaro this week, to strengthen ties between the two countries and construct future alliances.
The first ones to visit were UDI-president Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe and Arica senator José Durana. Van Rysselberghe said that she has “no doubt that he (Bolsonaro, red.) will be able to win the next elections in Brazil”. Speaking directly to Bolsonaro, Van Rysselberghe said she wanted to get “closer and closer to him”.
The trip and her comments have generated discomfort in her own Chilean party, as the board was not informed of her trip to Brazil. Vice-president of UDI Juan Antonio Coloma added that the ideas of Bolsonaro do not represent those of his party.
Jair Bolsonaro received a visit today, from Chilean Senators Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe and José Durana#Brasil #Bolsonaro #Chileans #Chile #ChileTodayNews pic.twitter.com/bEFgErc8Jf
— Chile Today News (@ChileTodayNews) October 18, 2018
Bolsonaro sends “a special hug” to Piñera
Jair Bolsonaro himself was pleased with the visit, as he stated that he wanted the best for both countries. “I want a great Brazil, and a great Chile”.
The candidate send a special message to Chilean president Sebastián Piñera. “I admire him (Pinera, red.) since his first term, when I met him. And I know that together, in bilateralism and agreements, we have everything to bring progress and happiness to our people. A special hug for Piñera,” he said.
Kast brings Chicago Boys-book
The next Chilean senator to meet Bolsonaro is former presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, who met Bolsonaro this morning. According to La Tercera, Kast will bring a shirt of the Chilean national football team and the book “El Ladrillo”, a study finished some week before the coup d´état in 1973. The study is considered to be the fundament of the economic policies during the dictatorship, as dictated by the so-called Chicago Boys. Kast commented on critics the meetings between Chilean politicians and Bolsonaro received in his home country, by saying: “I don´t care who drives the train, what matters to me is that the right candidate starts talking the truth.”
Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.