Brazil’s presidential hopefuls court the evangelical vote

Four years ago, 70 percent of evangelical Protestant Brazilians voted for President Jair Bolsonaro. But according to recent polls, their support has shifted. With his electoral campaign to reconquer Brazil in full swing, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is avidly courting this voting bloc, which is one of Brazilian politics’ biggest prizes and could determine the winner of the next election.

In Rio de Janeiro's bustling Floriano Square in the city centre, residents hurry along to the sound of street vendors and passing tram cars. In this busy setting, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God might almost go unnoticed. However, some 50 people have passed through its doors to worship at lunchtime. Most are women, some still in their work uniforms, and some of whom appear to go into a trance. “Deliver yourself from vice, call on God,” bellows the pastor, mic in hand, in a resounding speech that reverberates up through the roof.

With three months to go before elections in Brazil, most of the faithful become agitated when the issue of political interference in the church – and vice versa – is raised. “There's no room for politics inside the church. Only Jesus matters here,” insists a woman in her 40s who has come to worship.

However, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of Christ, founded in 1977, is closely linked to the Brazilian Republican Party (PRB). In 2020, two of Bolsonaro's sons, Flavio (a senator) and Carlos (a city councillor in Rio), as well as his ex-wife Rogéria Braga, rejoined the party.

“Talking about politics during worship doesn't bother me. If the pastor raises campaign issues, I think that's absolutely fine,” says Thiago, a 36-year-old mechanic who was leaving the church. Like 70 percent of evangelicals at the time, Thiago voted for the current president in 2018. He intends to vote the same way this October. “Here I find a discussion about the family, something I also like about Bolsonaro,” he says.