These people, who participate religiously in the evangelical world, no longer remain silent. I would say that there is a majority of the evangelical parishioners who hold pro-Bolsonaro positions, but at the same time it is clear that the ideological pressure exerted by pastors, bishops and lay leaders in the churches has produced an anti-Bolsonaro effect among moderate parishioners and those who located further to the left. These people, who participate religiously in the evangelical world, no longer remain silent. What has been Lula da Silva's strategy to win back the evangelical vote? Early in his campaign, Lula sought out some of the same evangelical leaders who had accompanied him during his first presidencies.

Those leaders later supported Bolsonaro, but, in an attempt to see how possible a dialogue or even a new alliance with them was, Lula sought a rapprochement with them. Lula also tried to make an appeal based on the social advances of his government, trying to reach the evangelicals directly above the leadership. The results were south africa phone number list not good. Lula then had to work with much greater dependence on the grassroots militancy in the evangelical churches and on pastors already known with the PT option. These are leaderships that belong to smaller churches, with less important structures in terms of social penetration. At once, Lula and the PT undertook a campaign through social networks with the aim of reaching a broad evangelical audience, which they would not be able to access in the traditional way due to the blockade of many of the pastors aligned with Bolsonaro.

On the other hand, there were various pressures for Lula to publish letters specifically addressed to religious sectors and, with great emphasis, to evangelicals. In fact, a letter not specifically addressed to evangelicals, but to the religious citizenry of Brazil, more generally, was published first. I think that was important because singling out evangelicals at this time as if they were the most decisive for the results of an election is misleading. But now one addressed to them has been published. It is something that, I think, in the very short term, he could perform electorally in terms of votes, but that could become another problem during a next government if he wins, while Lula could end up in the arms of a very conservative agenda.