Despite his age, Lula (74) is an idol of the youth and is expected to receive the vote of more than 60% of this group. This privileged position is due to the fact that he is the bearer of hope, because young people believe in his word, just as in other parts of the world young people believe in Pepe Mujica, a decade older than Lula, but as young as he is.
The youth support Lula, while for the majority Bolsonaro is not only reactionary, totalitarian and intolerant, a person clinging to anachronistic ways of life and behaviour. They are right, he is, like Trump, an attempt at “regressivism” in history.
For young people, Brazil’s current government represents a present and a future without prospects.
They are aware of their power in the October elections, because in addition to electoral strength and resilience, they have the capacity to politically influence their environment, the other generations.
Many analysts estimate that young people may have a significant say in the 2022 vote and its outcome, as they seek to imprint their presence on social media and in the context of friends and family.
In addition to the above, different sectors of society are encouraging adolescents to obtain the title of voter, through the use of the citizen’s right to vote. This is important, bearing in mind that young people can exercise this prerogative in national elections from the age of 16, a provision set out in the 1988 Constitution, which made voting compulsory from the age of 18.
Dissatisfied with the government of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, young people promise to go to the polls in October as never before in Brazil’s history, to be protagonists in the elections.
Despite attempts to place a so-called third way of candidates on the electoral chessboard, the election is clearly polarised: either Lula triumphs or the fascism embodied in Bolsonaro triumphs.
Polls increasingly corroborate such centralisation between two political attitudes of ideological extremes, with little room for a third proposal.
Former president Lula da Silva has more than 45% of the preference, followed by Bolsonaro, who is well over 30%.
Political parties, artists, influencers and popular movements carried out actions to encourage young people to obtain a voter’s card and vote for the first time, through campaigns such as “my first vote to remove Bolsonaro”.
The jurist Allanis Dimitria de Oliveira insists that “Brazilian youth are feeling the effects of the economic, social, political, environmental and health crises, further aggravated under the Bolsonaro government”.
They are all aware that in the last four years there has been a worsening of living conditions due to the implementation of “an ultra neoliberal, conservative and neo-fascist political agenda that runs through our lives. Surviving is increasingly difficult! We are a generation without perspective.
The catch phrase among young people is “Fora Bolsonaro!” and at least 67% of young people disapprove of the current administration. In the upcoming elections the youth vote may be the decisive one.
(Translated by Cristina Popa – Email: gcpopa83@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay and PxHere
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