The only man who can stop Jair Bolsonaro from becoming Brazil’s president

PERSONALITIES USUALLY matter more in Brazilian politics than parties do. But if Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist, wins the presidential election on October 28th, it will be largely because voters despise the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) of his run-off rival, Fernando Haddad (pictured). Dislike of the PT, or antipetismo, “seems to be the biggest party in the country”, wrote Maria Cristina Fernandes, a columnist, in Valor, a business newspaper. Mr Bolsonaro is way ahead in the polls.

Disgust with the PT, which governed Brazil from 2003 to 2016, is justified. In the early years, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the economy grew and poverty fell. The presidency of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, which began in 2011, was a disaster. Her mismanagement of the economy helped cause Brazil’s worst-ever recession. Corruption on a massive scale came to light through the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) investigations. She was impeached on unrelated charges. Lula is now serving a jail sentence for corruption.