Far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and left-wing challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traded punches and insults as they faced off on Sunday in their first-ever head-to-head debate two weeks before Brazil’s presidential runoff.

Lula attacked Bolsonaro as a “petty dictator” and “fake news king,” in return drawing accusations of lying, corruption and a “disgraceful” record as the rivals entered the first debate over their polarizing second-round showdown in October fought 30.

Frontrunner Lula, the charismatic but ailing ex-president (2003-2010) who is targeting a comeback at 76, has been particularly harsh in criticizing Bolsonaro for his handling of Covid-19, which has killed 687,000 people in Brazil, second only to the United States.

Lula attacked Bolsonaro for his opposition to buying vaccines and adopting unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine, saying the president “has the weight of these deaths on his shoulders.”

“Their negligence resulted in 680,000 people dying, although more than half could have been saved,” said the ex-metalworker in his characteristically hoarse voice.

Bolsonaro, 67, tried to shift focus to the issue of corruption – a soft spot for Lula, who was jailed in 2018 on controversial, now-cleared, charges stemming from an investigation into a massive bribery scheme against a state oil company, Petrobras.

“Your past is disgraceful…You have done nothing for Brazil but stuff public money in your pockets and those of your friends,” Bolsonaro said, calling Lula a “national disgrace.”

“Lula, stop lying, it’s bad for you at your age,” the ex-army captain said elsewhere, while defending his own record and targeting his rival’s age.

Already bitter, divisive and mud-slinging, the campaign has slipped even further into negative territory, if at all, since the first-round vote.

Lula’s camp, in particular, has embraced attack strategies once again seen on the far right, combing through archival video footage of Bolsonaro and plunging into unflattering quotes to try to link him to things like Freemasonry and cannibalism.

Her latest attack implied that Bolsonaro was a pedophile, with Lula allies calling the president a “depraved criminal” and expressing “disgust” on Saturday because he visited a home last year where a group of underage Venezuelan girls were apparently believed to be prostitute worked.

The head of Brazil’s top electoral court, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, ordered dozens of Lula-linked websites to remove attacks linked to the Bolsonaro video, ruling on Sunday that the incumbent’s comments had been taken out of context.

Arriving at the debate in Sao Paulo – the first attended only by Lula and Bolsonaro – the President said the past 24 hours had been “the most horrible of my life” because of the attacks.

Lula did not mention the issue during the debate but wore a campaign against child sexual abuse pin on his lapel.

The free-running debate rules allowed the contestants to roam the stage and approach the cameras, which both frequently did – although they rarely looked at each other, with the notable exception of a tense silence that Bolsonaro finally broke by placing his hand on Lula’s shoulder with a smile.

As with much of the campaign, far more time was devoted to personal attacks than to factual discussions.

“Policy proposals have lost their central role and accusations have taken their place,” political scientist Christopher Mendonca told AFP.

Bolsonaro, the caustic hard-line conservative who took office in 2019, came second in the first round of voting on Oct. 2 with 43 percent of the vote, versus 48 percent for Lula.

But many opinion polls had put Lula’s lead in double digits.

Bolsonaro’s stronger-than-expected performance has given him an aura of momentum en route to the runoff, fueling speculation about the possibility of another upset in two weeks’ time.

According to a poll released Friday by the Datafolha Institute, Lula has 53 percent of the vote in the runoff, versus 47 percent for Bolsonaro.