Brazil’s 2018 campaign kicks off: here are the candidates proposals

Brazil’s 2018 presidential race has officially begun. From now on, candidates are allowed to distribute advertising material and openly ask for votes. We have separated the main proposals laid out by the five candidates with the best polling numbers – as the next president will most likely be one of them. We focused on four main issues: the economic crisis, the public security crisis, health care, and education.

Not all 2018 candidates have clear proposals on how to deal with Brazil’s most pressing issues. So, if something sounds vague, it’s because the candidate hasn’t explained how they will achieve what is being promised. The candidates are presented in order of their performance in the most recent opinion poll. As the survey excludes former President Lula, the Workers’ Party is listed as the fifth force.

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Jair Bolsonaro

Brazil’s fiscal crisis

• End the fiscal deficit in 2019, turning it into a surplus by 2020;
• Austerity measures and flexible currency policies;
• Keep Ilan Goldfajn as the Central Bank president;
• Tax cuts, made possible by attracting “new money” to Brazil, through mining projects, tourism, and increasing public security;
• Slash public debt by 20 percent through privatizations, divestments, and concessions;
• Simplify and unify federal taxes.

Public security

• Reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years old;
• End gun control laws, allowing every citizen to bear arms – including assault rifles for landowners;
• Legally protect law enforcement agents who kill people during police operations;
• End mechanisms to avoid unnecessary arrests. For Mr. Bolsonaro, prison overcrowding is a problem for criminals. Also ending progressive sentences and furlough policies;
• End the monopoly detained by Brazilian company Taurus in gun manufacturing, opening the market to foreign players.
• Classify occupations of rural properties or buildings as “acts of terrorism”;
• Reinforce the role of the Armed Forces in the fight against organized crime.

Healthcare

• Creating a Unified Patient Record;
• “Freeing” the Cuban doctors who are working in remote areas under the More Doctors Program (these doctors are not paid directly, but rather by an opaque network of transactions mediated by the Cuban government). However, Mr. Bolsonaro is not clear whether he...