Elections and Foreign Policy: the challenges of Brazilian presidential elections in 2018.
In 2018, the brazilian presidential elections has introduced new challenges and dynamics on Brazilian politics, being characterized by intense political polarization among both candidates and voters. Considering this context of changes, this article aims to analyze how the foreign policy was approached by the main candidates to the head of the Executive (Geraldo Alckmin, Fernando Haddad, Jair Bolsonaro, Ciro Gomes and Marina Silva) during the presidential run in 2018. In this regard, it is analyzed the government plans and pronouncements of each candidate, concerning the following axes: I) importance given to foreign policy in the government plans, comparing it to other policies; II) supporting attitude regarding a bigger pluralization of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, or a defense to its bureaucratic isolation; III) proposals about the regional integration processes, especially Mercosur, Unasur and the relation with European Union; IV) trends to multilateralism or bilateralism as strategies of foreign policy. Furthermore, it discusses important issues of the Brazilian foreign policy studies, such as the considering the foreign policy as a public policy and the pluralization of its politics and decision-making processes, and contributes on the research agenda concerning the relation between foreign policy and elections in Brazil. The main finds regard the effects caused by the end of the electoral dynamic guided by two big parties – Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) – and the rising of a rightwing newborn party and its candidate to the Presidency, on brazilian international relations.