Late court orders and withdrawals derail Globo’s presidential debate

Late court orders and withdrawals derail Globo’s presidential debate
Globo pulled its presidential debate less than an hour before it was due to air, after the two leading candidates, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, withdrew and judicial decisions changed both the proposed format and the list of participants.

The broadcaster said it had initially invited Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro, Augusto Cury and Ronaldo Caiado under rules tied to congressional representation. Decisions then added Romeu Zema and, later, Renan Santos. Separately, a TSE ruling barred Globo from displaying Lula’s empty, labelled podium or allowing questions directed at him after his absence. Globo said the late changes created “legal uncertainty” and amounted to “undue interference” in the press’s freedom to organize electoral debates.

Lula had already opted for an interview with the Flow podcast at the debate’s scheduled time. He criticized the prospect of facing Flávio Bolsonaro, saying a debate is healthy with qualified participants but that it was different to compete with someone he described as unqualified. Flávio Bolsonaro, who had initially said he would attend without Lula, reversed course after the TSE order. He said he would not go because of “censorship imposed on the event by the TSE,” adding that the press must be free and elections clean.

Other candidates focused on the institutional fallout rather than the empty podium. Caiado criticized the court interventions as a dangerous weakening of institutions, while Zema argued that long-standing participation rules should be followed. Renan Santos, whose inclusion was ordered by the Supreme Court, accused Flávio Bolsonaro of leaving only after his own place was confirmed; Cury faulted both frontrunners for their withdrawals.

Commentators sympathetic to Flávio Bolsonaro framed the sequence more bluntly. Rodrigo Constantino said changing the rules on the eve of the debate made Flávio’s withdrawal justified. Globo, however, maintained that its aim had been to let voters compare proposals, but said the conditions for doing so had been altered too late.

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