Giving Compass' Take:

• The author explains key areas that will be affected by Brazil's new President, Jair Bolsonaro, and the specific implications for social issues in Brazil. 

• How will Brazil need support from the international community in the next few years? What can be done to help with potential human rights issues? 

• Read about how the United Nations helps countries that are battling conflict. 

Brazil overwhelmingly elected the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday to be its next president in what is being hailed as the country’s most radical break with electoral tradition in decades.

His victory is widely seen as a rejection of the country’s political status quo, which has been dogged by the largest corruption scandal in its history, soaring crime, and a faltering economy.

“This is a complete earthquake in Brazilian political history, not just the election but also how the campaign was a complete collapse of the political center,” Christopher Sabatini, lecturer of international and public policy at Columbia University, told Global Citizen. “Basically you have a very pitched and polarized system, and now a radical, outsider president-elect.”

In the final run-off vote, Bolsonaro handily defeated Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of São Paulo and member of the Workers Party (PT), an affiliation that likely contributed to Haddad’s loss because of the party’s association with Operation Car Wash, the corruption scandal that has plagued the country for the past several years.

Bolsonaro ran on a law-and-order and deregulation platform as a member of the far-right Social Liberal Party. He has vowed to crack down on crime, cut government spending, and open up the Amazon rainforest to industrial interests to spur economic growth. Bolsonaro also has a long history of making offensive comments about women, LGBTQ people, Indigenous communities, and people of color.

His scant policy resume and his tendency to focus on crime and corruption has made it unclear how he will govern on many issues.

Despite the vagueness surrounding his campaign, there are still clues that give a sense of how he might govern. Here are how five key issues may play out under a Bolsonaro presidency.

  • Poverty & Inequality:
  • Climate Change & Indigenous Rights
  • Human Rights
  • Women’s Rights
  • Refugees

Read the full article about Brazil's new president by Joe McCarthy at Global Citizen