The far-right senator intended the hand-written message to draw attention to alleged corruption by the incumbent, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Instead, many viewers took it as an admission of his own guilt, and Lula supporters flooded social media with photographs of their professions written on their hands.
The reaction spanned the country: guitarists, comedians, nurses, librarians, oil workers, engineers, journalists, architects, pilots, psychologists, seamstresses, street cleaners, teachers, influencers and police officers all joined in. Lula's health minister, Alexandre Padilha, identified himself as a doctor, while politician Tabata Amaral identified as a political scientist and astrophysicist.
Writing on Substack, Latin America expert James Bosworth called the stunt a "critical error" in Bolsonaro's bid for power. "It may have seemed like an inspired pre-debate gimmick. Instead, he gave the world a meme image that will stick with him for the rest of his political career," Bosworth said, adding a piece of advice for politicians: "Don't write the word 'corrupto' on your hand and show it to the audience."
Bolsonaro, a 45-year-old senator who has long faced corruption accusations he denies and for which he has never been convicted, also has well-documented ties to members of Rio de Janeiro's mafia underworld and once employed relatives of the city's most notorious contract killer, Adriano da Nóbrega. Last week two allies were arrested over alleged involvement with the Red Command drug faction, which the Trump administration recently designated a foreign terrorist organisation. Bolsonaro voiced surprise at the arrests and said the men had the right to prove their innocence. On Monday, Brazilian media reported that Bolsonaro is being investigated by the federal police as part of a money-laundering inquiry.
Lula, whose Workers' Party has itself been involved in major corruption scandals, used the debate to throw down a challenge: he said he would give electoral authorities access to his banking and phone recordings, and those of close relatives, if Bolsonaro agreed to do the same. Bolsonaro, who polls suggest holds a slender advantage ahead of Sunday's runoff, has yet to respond. He won the 4 October first round by more than two million votes.