Brazilians love suspense, plot twists, and surprises. And many had been hoping for weeks that some novelty — a scandalous revelation, a fresh name… — would shake up an election campaign that many felt was more of the same. Highly polarized and with two huge blocks of voters absolutely determined to bet on President Lula or Bolsonaro Jr., either out of genuine adherence to their ideology or because he is the lesser evil. A new name suddenly emerges with force in this landscape marked by a technical tie in the polls: Augusto Cury, 67 years old, wealthy and famous author of self-help books, who has just broken the double-digit barrier by reaching 11% in a Nexus poll that gives 37% to the Brazilian president and 31% to Senator Bolsonaro.
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While Cury gains strength in the polls and on social media, with two million new followers in about two days, another name that showed some potential to alter the Lula-Bolsonaro dynamic was silenced on Monday by a controversial judicial decision: the anti-system candidate Renan Santos, 42 years old, leader of the Missão (mission) party, businessman and former activist, was excluded from electoral debates, social media, and lost access to the public campaign financing fund by a precautionary decision of a Supreme Court judge.
Judge José Antonio Dias Toffoli argued that Santos registered several of his social media accounts late, thus evading the restrictions that affect candidates and benefiting from algorithms when he should not have. An irregularity that, according to the Brazilian press, affects thousands of candidates running in the October elections. Less than 24 hours later, the same judge lifted the ban.
The emergence of Cury as the surprise candidate — pending whether this position is fleeting or consolidates — has for now overshadowed the exclusion of the Missão leader, a right-wing advocate of radical proposals who generates enormous enthusiasm among the younger generation, especially men.
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Even President Lula wants to know more about the opponent who is poking his head out a little in what has so far been a head-to-head between him and the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. “Who is this Cury?” the president asked the most powerful bankers and businessmen in Brazil, whom he invited to dinner at the presidential palace on Monday to “listen to them.” The main topic of conversation was interest rates (14% per year), according to the Brazilian press.
Cury is a psychiatrist who owes his fame to self-help books but also earns money as a businessman and agricultural producer. He claims to have sold more than 40 million copies. In a recent interview, he presented himself as a third way against extreme political polarization with this self-definition: “My mind is capitalist, with all the attributes of capitalism, meritocracy, small government, entrepreneurship, freedom of expression, protection of the family… but my heart is social,” he explained, according to O Globo. He also declares himself a Christian. His discourse avoids ideologies with arguments such as “when a woman is killed, the pain is neither left nor right.”
In a move not uncommon in Brazilian politics, the psychiatrist knocked on the doors of several parties until one, Avante, opened them and put him at the head of its presidential candidacy. Another attraction he offers is his personal wealth. For many, his fortune of 40 million dollars is an antidote to the temptation of illegal enrichment.
