Rumble in Brazil: São Paulo mayoral candidate attacks rival during televised debate

Brazilian far-right candidate Pablo Marçal ended up with a broken rib after his opponent, news anchor José Luiz Datena, attacked him with a chair during a live televised debate. The two candidates are competing for the São Paulo mayorship, one of the most hotly contested seats in Brazil.

Marçal, a popular Instagram influencer with more than 13 million followers,  is one of the strongest candidates, along with the city’s current mayor, Ricardo Nunes, who has been endorsed by former president and general, Jair Bolsonaro. Guilherme Boulos, a leftist allied with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is competing for the same political seat.

The incident occurred Sunday night during a debate organized by the TV Cultura channel, which included all the major candidates. Videos reveal that Datena’s hostile reaction came after Marçal made several accusations against him, including some related to sexual harassment.

The debate momentarily went off air after the attack, but resumed without Datena, who was expelled and without Marçal, who was taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

During the São Paulo mayoral debate, candidate Datena attacked Pablo Marçal with a chair after Marçal called him a "coward" for not being man enough to slap him in the face. pic.twitter.com/ecrHaWZ1M2

— Crazy Ass Moments in LatAm Politics (@AssLatam) September 16, 2024

Although there has not been an official report on Marçal's condition, members of his team have said he has a rib fracture. One of his fingers was also dislocated, paramedics told local media.

Datena later told the press that he “lost his mind” because the exchange with Marçal’s dredged up painful memories of his mother-in-law dying after she heard about sexual harassment accusations against her son-in-law.

That incident stems from a 2019 complaint in which a journalist working on a program with Datena told police the Brazilian news anchor was making sexually suggestive comments to her.

The journalist later retracted her complaint, but Datena endured some personal repercussions when the allegations first surfaced.

Three weeks before the October municipal elections in Brazil, the polls place Marçal third in the polls, virtually tied with Nunes and Boulos.

For his part, Marçal compared his attack to the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, and the 2018 stabbing incident against Bolsonaro, both conservative candidates who were attacked as far left criticism swirled in the media.

Pablo Marçal is an influencer, businessman and admirer of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

The far-right has poured resources into the São Paulo mayoral electoral contest, according to analysts, in hopes of having the change to govern the city of 12 million and increase its overall numbers.