Hundreds of thousands of women on Saturday turned out for a wave of nationwide protests in Brazil against the candidacy of the right-wing frontrunner in next week’s presidential election, Brazilian Federal Deputy and Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, who was released from hospital on Saturday after being stabbed and seriously wounded by a left-wing activist during a rally on Sept. 6, is currently leading in opinion polls.
Marches organized by a social media campaign under the hashtag #EleNao (“Not Him”) began in earnest at about 6pm in dozens of cities, including Rio de Janeiro, where thousands of women converged at the vast Cinelandia Square, to be joined by a column of others marching from the Avenida Rio Branco, a major thoroughfare, reporters said.
Small groups took to the streets even earlier in Sao Paulo and other locations. Demonstrations also took place abroad, from Dublin and Paris to Budapest and Beirut.
Superstar Madonna proclaimed her solidarity with the cause in an Instagram post that included the hashtag #endfascism.
The Time’s Up movement, which supports victims of sexual abuse, tweeted its support: “To our sisters in Brazil: We are all in this together. We see you and hear you. We are with you.”
“Women of Brazil, women outside Brazil, all women, it’s time to join in,” said Ludimilla Teixeira, one of the march’s organizers. “Either we join now to fight or we’re going to gather to mourn later.”
By the time the protesters headed home, organizers said that at least a half-million took part.
Police did not offer figures.
Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former army captain, has been branded racist, misogynist and homophobic by his detractors.
He has specifically angered women by seeking to justify a yawning gender wage gap and has argued against employing women if it was likely they would become pregnant.
Bolsonaro on Friday further inflamed his opponents by saying that he would accept no outcome in the Oct. 7 balloting but his own victory.
“From what I see on the streets, I do not accept any election result that is not my election,” he said in an interview with a local TV network.
That drew a withering response from opponents.
Center-left Democratic Labor Party candidate Ciro Gomes said that Bolsonaro would be “striking a blow against our democracy” and that the best antidote was “not to vote Bolsonaro in the first round in order to protect Brazil from a leap into the abyss.”
Bolsonaro’s supporters laud both his tough stance on tackling Brazil’s rising crime rate and his pledge to protect traditional family values.
Hundreds of his female supporters staged pro-Bolsonaro rallies on Rio’s Copacabana beach and in Sao Paulo.
“I support Bolsonaro because he has a clean record,” Elizabeth Resende, a regional Social Liberal Party candidate said in Sao Paulo.
“He is not homophobic or macho. I’m with him because I’m not a feminist — I’m female — and want respect for my children and a better country,” she said.
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