🥱 Deflated debate

The first presidential debate of 2026 was an underwhelming 90 minutes. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the two frontrunners, had already confirmed they would sit it out, but the event grew flatter still when former Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema joined the boycott, leaving half of the six lecterns empty.

Augusto Cury, the psychiatrist and self-help author running for the small Avante party, nearly made it four. He reached Band's gate, went live on social media to announce he was quitting in protest at the others' no-show, sat in his car for about a minute, then walked in anyway.

For Lula and Flávio, the logic is defensive: Brazilian debates have become clip factories, and neither saw upside in …

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