How macho, boastful Bolsonaro finally flopped

The far-right former soldier often bragged of his virility, but in the end his posturing repelled a majority of voters

- Tom Phillips RIO DE JANEIRO

Two months ago, Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, stood before a sea of supporters in his nation's capital and used a phallic mantra to declare himself politically "unfloppable".

But last month Bolsonaro suffered a chastening defeat by his leftwing foe Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a make-or-break presidential election.

As Lula's win was confirmed, supporters flooded São Paulo's streets to celebrate Bolsonaro's loss of potency.

"The unfloppable flopped! The unfloppable flopped!" bellowed Gil Alvarenga, a 37-year-old activist from Brazil's landless movement, as he bounded through the crowds.

Experts say the story of how Brazil's leader went flaccid involves a litany of outrages, ineptitudes and errors committed during a chaotic four-year reign that saw nearly 700,000 Covid deaths, tens of millions plunged into poverty, and South America's largest economy become an international pariah notorious for Amazon annihilation.

"He was a bad president who is being punished for being a bad president," said José Roberto de Toledo, a political columnist for the news website UOL, who thought Bolsonaro's clumsy handling of the economy was ultimately what sealed his fate.

It is also the story of how moderate, pro-democracy forces finally united behind Lula to evict Brazil's extremist leader in the showdown.

"It was a really important moment of unity," said the political journalist Consuelo Dieguez, noting how influential centrists such as the former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the senator Simone Tebet swung behind the former leftist president.