RIO DE JANEIRO — A candidate for mayor of Brazil’s Sao Paulo city was treated and released from hospital Monday after being hit with a metal chair by one of his five rivals after he addressed sexual misconduct allegations during a televised debate. Self-help influencer-turned-right-wing politician Pablo Marcal referred to the allegations against former TV host-turned-candidate Jose Luis Datena during Sunday night’s debate and said Datena wanted to slap him.
He added: “You’re not manly enough to do that.”
Mr Datena, who denies the allegations, approached Mr Marsal’s podium with a chair over his head and slammed it into Mr Marsal’s side when he raised his arm. The moderator of the TV Cultura debate quickly interrupted for a commercial break and the debate resumed later on Sunday night without Mr Marsal.
Marsal’s team later shared a video of her being rushed to hospital in an ambulance while receiving breathing support. Marsal explained on her social media channels on Monday that she felt pain while breathing and had a fractured lower rib cage.
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The Syrian Lebanese Hospital said in a statement on Monday that Marsal “suffered trauma to the right chest and right wrist but did not suffer any major complications,” adding that he had been released from hospital.
A video posted on social media shows a doctor talking to Marsal in his hospital bed, telling him he has “small fracture lines.” Marsal called the incident an “attempted murder” on social media. Assassination attempt on Donald Trump Since the beginning of this year Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stabbing incident In the run up to the 2018 presidential election.
Marcal has used his passionate online following and fiery voice to launch a new political campaign that has seen his popularity soar in opinion polls in recent months and now put him on an equal footing with incumbent Ricardo Nunes and left-wing lawmaker Guilherme Boulos, drawing even more attention to the mayoral race in Brazil’s largest city.
The investigation into Datena’s alleged misconduct was shelved after no charges were ever laid and the accuser recanted.
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Datena explained that the incident had been particularly painful for him because he believed it led to his mother-in-law suffering a series of strokes and dying.
Datena said in a statement Monday that he made a mistake but that he didn’t regret it “at all.”
“If the circumstances were the same, I would not hesitate to repeat this act as an extreme response to the history of attacks my opponents have carried out against me and so many others,” he said in a statement.
Mr Marsal’s campaign said the debate should not have gone ahead without him and said it wanted appropriate legal action taken against Mr Datena.
The incident was registered as a case of “injury and insult” at a local police station on Sunday night, according to a statement from Sao Paulo’s public security service, which suggested an investigation was ongoing.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has backed Boulos, and while Bolsonaro has backed Nunes, many of the former president’s supporters are attracted to Marçal’s personality and are backing him.
