President Jair Bolsonaro toned down his rhetoric during Brazil’s Independence Day celebrations, seeking to woo undecided voters and reinvigorate his campaign less than a month before general elections.
Government faithful packed the oceanside drag along Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach on Wednesday as well as Brasilia’s esplanade of ministries, a large thoroughfare that connects the presidential palace, congress and the top court with the rest of the capital.
During his second speech of the day, the typically sharp-tongued president avoided naming his political rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva directly and tried to burnish an image of God-fearing, corruption-fighting leader that will spur economic growth.
