The Los Angeles Times quotes Adrienne Arsht Center Deputy Director Jason Marczak on Brazil’s upcoming presidential runoff elections:
Neves made it through as a dark horse because the Workers’ Party concentrated its formidable negative campaign machinery on Silva, said Jason Marczak, deputy director at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center in Washington.
“We now have the same parties and debates we’ve had for 20 years, but we have a different Brazil. It’s now a middle-class country, and the citizenship will place different demands on whoever wins,” said Marczak, referring to a desire for improved infrastructure and social services.
“Silva’s support is important for Neves, but not decisive, because he needs to win over more than 70% of Silva’s voters, and some are more sympathetic to the leftist Rousseff,” he said.
“No matter what promises he’s made, to carry them out he’ll need to rely on Congress … the idea of a new politics worked better in theory than in practice.”