Brazil Front-Runners Fail the Street Test Six Months Before Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Near-empty demonstrations organized by the right and the left across Brazil this past weekend showed that neither side is managing to engage voters ahead of October elections, according to Flavio Dino, one of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign managers. 

Dino, a close ally of the left-wing former president, says people are tired after years of polarization. The way to attract these voters and win is not by digging into controversial stances, he says, but through a moderate government program that focuses on what's actually hurting the population: inflation, unemployment and high fuel prices. 

“There is a sort of civic fatigue in Brazilian society because we have been living under intense demonstrations and political conflicts for a decade now,” Dino said during a video interview. “The people that will decide are not in the streets this time.”

Lula, who leads early polls for the vote, has so far failed to follow Dino's strategy. In recent weeks, he said abortion should be legalized, angering Brazil's millions of evangelicals and catholics. This past weekend, he faced fresh backlash after saying his main opponent, President Jair Bolsonaro, doesn't care about people, only about policemen. He backtracked on both remarks amid criticism. 

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Dino, a former governor of from the Northeastern state of Maranhao who is running for the Senate and helping with Lula's campaign, says even an experienced politician like the ex-president makes mistakes. To attract more voters, the leftist leader will launch a centrist government program in July after a handful of internal discussions between the Workers' Party and a group of four allied parties. That includes the PSB, home of Lula's running mate Geraldo Alckmin and Dino himself. 

“The key to Lula's victory is moderating the rhetoric and program, moving toward the center and avoiding speaking only to those who already support you, focusing on consensus,” he said. “You must meet people's expectations of predictability, security and institutional order.”

Being moderate doesn't mean abandoning core ideas such as reducing poverty and keeping the government's presence in the economy, Dino says. Like other Lula allies, he dodges the question of who would be at the helm of Latin America's largest economy if the former president returns to power, saying only that the name “is a work in progress” and that the economic program “will not cater only to Faria Lima” -- a reference to Brazil's financial markets. 

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Dino also dismisses concerns of infighting within the campaign, which has seen bickering over control of the press and marketing offices, and reports that Lula is falling behind Bolsonaro on social media. To him, the incumbent's higher digital engagement numbers are more than expected as Lula's base is among the poorest.  

“These people don't have time to be hanging out on the Internet. They are hanging out on the bus,” he said.

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