Ronaldo Caiado, Renan Santos and Augusto Cury clashed over public security, foreign policy and labor rules during the second block of Brazil's first presidential debate of the 2026 campaign, broadcast by TV Bandeirantes.
Caiado, the former governor of Goiás running for the PSD, was asked whether public security management should fall to state governments and for his view on body cameras for military police. He accused the current administration of being complicit with criminal factions, saying it had capitulated to organized crime, and called for artificial intelligence, battalion training, integration of security forces and respect for governors' authority over the area.
Renan Santos, of the Missão party, was chosen to respond and accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government of trying to concentrate power over public security. He said the Workers' Party wanted to hold onto control of the police rather than fight criminals, calling it an enemy of police forces in every state.
Santos repeated a pledge from earlier in the debate to order federal interventions in states that refuse to cooperate with his security policy if elected, naming Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and Bahia. He said those states would either commit fully to fighting organized crime or answer to the federal government through a state of defense or Guarantee of Law and Order military operations.
Caiado backed the Public Security constitutional amendment currently before the Senate and criticized Lula for tying its passage to the creation of a Ministry of Public Security. He pledged to build 40 federal prisons, arguing that state prisons are full of gang-affiliated inmates, which he called a federal responsibility, and criticized the federal government for withholding funds from the Penitentiary Fund and the Public Security Fund.
He also pointed to measures he introduced in Goiás, including body scanners, environmental monitoring, a ban on conjugal visits for gang members and recorded meetings between inmates and lawyers. Caiado said he would appoint prosecutor Lincoln Gaikya, known for combating organized crime within São Paulo's Public Prosecutor's Office, to lead the security ministry and would classify criminal factions as terrorist organizations.
Criticism of Itamaraty and defense of agribusiness
Augusto Cury, of the Avante party, was asked about diplomatic relations between Brazil and the United States. The psychiatrist said Brazil could not be subservient to Washington, argued that US tariff measures reflect American desperation over public finances, and promised to overhaul Brazilian embassies abroad.
Caiado, invited to comment, accused Lula of provoking US President Donald Trump to boost his own profile and distract from the election. He also criticized Brazil's foreign ministry, known as Itamaraty, saying its diplomatic corps had become a mouthpiece for the Workers' Party instead of defending national interests.
Cury followed by defending Brazil's economic strengths, citing rare earths, renewable energy, green hydrogen and agriculture. He spoke about farmers' mental health, saying depression rates among agricultural workers are double the national average, and said doubling food production from 350 million to 700 million tonnes over the next decade would put Brazil on equal footing with China, India and the United States.
Debate over ending the 6x1 work schedule
A third question went to Santos on the 6x1 shift, under which employees work six days and rest one. He criticized a Senate bill proposing a 5x2 schedule and urged voters not to believe they could work less and earn more. Gesturing toward the empty podium reserved for Lula, who did not attend, Santos said the same person now promising shorter hours had previously promised Brazilians they would eat more steak and would not pay for new taxes on low-cost imports and electronics.
Santos promised a labor reform allowing workers to be hired by the hour and said it served Lula's interests to keep voters unemployed so they depend on welfare programs and vote for him.
Cury was given the floor to respond and spoke about the strain on workers, backing the 5x2 proposal. He also called Lula's absence from the debate, combined with a simultaneous interview on Record TV, a disrespect for democracy.
Santos pushed back, saying he wants to raise the productivity of the Brazilian economy so people earn more per hour and have money left over at the end of the month. He said he would rather lose votes than lie to voters and did not want people ending up on the Bolsa Família welfare program. He also criticized Record TV for excluding him from candidate interviews while giving Lula an interview slot during the debate, saying he wanted to know whether the network would ask Lula about corruption allegations involving his son and Brazil's social security agency, and about the Banco Master financial scandal, which he said emerged during Lula's government.
A debate without Lula, Bolsonaro and Zema
Santos, Caiado and Cury were the only candidates who took part in the debate, held at TV Bandeirantes' studios in São Paulo. Lula, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL and Romeu Zema of the Novo party were invited but did not attend.
Zema's campaign said his absence was tied to Lula's decision to skip the event, noting that the debate's date had been moved from August 16 to August 23 on the expectation that Lula would take part to ensure plurality among candidates. With Lula and others absent, the campaign said, that purpose had been lost.
According to reporting by CNN, Lula's aides had already signaled a minimal chance he would attend, and his campaign never collected his credentials for the event. The assessment was that Lula would become the main target of the other, right-leaning candidates. Instead, he gave an interview to Record TV that aired at the same time as the debate.
Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign concluded that without Lula on stage, there was no advantage to appearing, since he would become the other candidates' main target. PL party president Valdemar Costa Neto told CNN that Flávio should only take part in debates where Lula is present.
Cury initially announced he would withdraw from the debate over the absence of the race's "main players," making the announcement on social media outside the studio shortly before it began. He later reversed course, saying he would take part out of respect for the broadcaster.
How candidates were positioned
TV Bandeirantes held a draw attended by campaign aides and coordinators to set the candidates' positions, arranged left to right from the viewer's perspective. Santos was placed at the far left, followed by Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro, Caiado, Cury and Zema. Podiums for candidates who did not attend remained empty.
Debate format and eligibility rules
The debate opened with rounds of identical questions to all participants on core campaign themes, with two minutes given to each candidate to lay out proposals. In rounds featuring questions from journalists or exchanges between candidates, the person asking has up to one minute to pose the question, while the candidate answering has four minutes, including any rebuttal and counter-rebuttal.
Under Brazilian electoral law, candidates from parties with at least five members of Congress are eligible to take part in debates, provided their candidacy has been approved. The number of participants and other rules are set by agreement between the parties and the broadcaster, with the electoral court informed of the arrangements.
