“2018, the final battle”

Lava Jato and Bolsonaro in an anti-corruption and antisystem campaign

Abstract

This text analyzes how Jair Bolsonaro’s TV campaign, in the second round of the 2018 presidential election, mobilized the fight against corruption as a strategy for electoral adhesion. We investigated the hypothesis that the theme is central to the campaign, driven by the impact of the Lava Jato (Carwash operation) on the political system and its strategy of winning over public opinion. To do so, we present, on the one hand, the main lines of the Operation, and on the other, how their narratives were portrayed in the electoral programs broadcast by Bolsonaro’s campaign in the second round. In the analysis of Lava Jato operators, we found that the 2018 election is seen as the next step for the realization of its project for renewing and cleaning up the political system. We argue that there was strategic coordination in the fight against corruption, in the search for a convergence between horizontal, societal and vertical accountabilities. In the treatment of HGPE data, we identified four discursive axes and the predominance of the Anticorruption /Anti-system axis, with approximately 57.2% of the mentions. Our analysis shows that Bolsonaro took advantage of the discursive brands that strongly aligned with Lava Jato: antipetism, anti-system and the candidate’s association with the fight anti-corruption, presenting himself as his genuine representative.