Bolsonaro: Brazil's Polarizing Far-right President

Rio de Janeiro, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Aug, 2022 ) :Four years after storming in to shake up a Brazil disgusted with politics-as-usual, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro finds it increasingly hard to cast himself as an outsider, but remains as vitriolic and polarizing as ever.

The 67-year-old incumbent is due to officially launch his reelection bid Tuesday in the place that cemented him in the minds of die-hard supporters as "The Myth": the small southeastern city of Juiz de Fora.

It is where an attacker stabbed Bolsonaro in the abdomen at a rally for his 2018 campaign, nearly killing the ex-army captain turned congressman.

Known for a brash, divisive style that earned him the nickname "Tropical Trump," Bolsonaro had surged to prominence on the campaign trail that year by playing to voters disgusted with Brazil's economic implosion and the massive "car Wash" corruption scandal.

When he survived the knife attack -- perpetrated by an assailant who was later declared mentally unfit to stand trial -- it only fueled followers' belief in their "Messias," or "Messiah" -- Bolsonaro's middle name.

But the aura of invincibility around the president has faded as he enters the home stretch of his term with the economy sputtering, his popularity flagging and ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), his leftist nemesis, leading him in the polls for October's elections.