Looking for love in Brazil? Your politics might be a dealbreaker

With just days left to go until Brazil chooses either Jair Bolsonaro or Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the country’s next president, much of society is locked in tit-for-tat political debates at work, school, and online. Polls suggest that only a few percent of the population are still undecided, with the rest firm in their convictions of backing the incumbent or former President Lula — or spoiling their ballot.

A recent survey, however, suggests that there is one key arena where political arguments are becoming less frequent: in the home. 

Weddings portal Casamentos.com.br showed that eight out of every ten couples set to tie the knot in the country between now and December 2024 share the same political opinions. Only 15 percent of respondents said that their partners sat on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum.

“Before this current political moment, ideological opinions did not seem to be a primordial factor in choosing a partner,” says psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist Lucy Abramvezt, speaking to The Brazilian Report.

“As it happens, voting for candidate A or...