Dawisson Belem Lopes, a political scientist at Minas Gerais Federal University, describes Mr Marcal as a “very deft, truly talented” political operator and the “future of Brazilian politics”. He added: “As someone who believes in democratic institutions and the rule of law, I find that very disturbing.”
Before the debate, Mr Marcal had surged into a three-way tie with leftist challenger Guilherme Boulos and the conservative incumbent Ricardo Nunes. Mr Datena, who insists he does not regret his violent assault, was trailing several points behind them.
Online self-help courses
Preaching a peculiar brand of Christianity that equates material success with piousness, he blends the style of a TV evangelist with the economic libertarianism of Argentina’s Javier Milei and the iron fist approach to crime of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. Mr Marcal has long offered online self-help courses, some costing as much as £4,000, based on his “IP Method”, supposedly based on neuroscience.
Covering everything from “mental blocks” to entrepreneurship, they have allowed him to amass an estimated personal fortune of £20 million. In one typical blockbusting course, titled “High Performance, 5Ps”, he promises to help customers achieve a “life of abundance” by focusing on “purpose, people, process, productivity and prosperity”.
Yet Mr Marcal has a chequered history. He was convicted in 2010 for participating in a racket to hack online bank accounts, but then ran out the clock during the appeals process to avoid prison.
He first made national headlines in Brazil in 2022, when he led dozens of unprepared followers up one of Brazil’s tallest mountains, the 8,000ft Pico dos Marins, in a raging storm. The bedraggled group eventually had to be rescued and prosecutors even briefly opened an “attempted murder” probe into Mr Marçal. He insists he did not force anyone to follow him on the expedition.
In his mayoral run, he is promising to turbocharge the economy of “São Paulo 2.0”, rid the city of crack addicts and crime, and build the world’s tallest skyscraper but, sceptics note, without explaining how.
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Publish date : 2024-09-22 00:29:00
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