List of Political Catch Phrases - Brazil

Brazil

  • "Eu não sabia" ("I didn't know") – said by Lula when asked about the Mensalão scandal, that had José Dirceu, Lula's intimate friend and then-Chief of Staff, as the head of the scheme.
  • "Só morto sairei do Catete"! ("Only dead I'll leave the Catete !") – said by then-president Getúlio Vargas when he was being pressed by opposition parties to leave presidence.
  • "E se o Pitta não for um bom prefeito, nunca mais vote em mim". ("If Pitta can't be a good mayor, you should never vote for me again".) – said by Paulo Maluf in the campaign for the 1996 São Paulo city elections, where he supported Celso Pitta. Pitta was later involved in corruption scandals and served time in prison.
  • "Estupra, mas não mata" ("Rape, but don't kill.") Said by Paulo Maluf during his classes in one of São Paulo's University.
  • "Relaxa e goza!" ("Relax and enjoy!") – said by Marta Suplicy at the peak of the 2006–2007 Brazilian aviation crisis, taken from an older, longer non-political popular saying, "Se a curra é inevitável, relaxa e goza" ("If the rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy"). The word "goza" comes from the verb "gozar" which, in formal Brazilian Portuguese, means "to enjoy" (in literal sense) or "to make fun of/to zombate at" (in another sense); in the case of the aforementioned sentence, it comes from the vulgar Brazilian Portuguese expression "to have an orgasm" (equalling to sexual verb "to cum").
  • "Bebo-o porque é líquido. Se fosse sólido, comê-lo-ia" ("I drink it because it's liquid. If it were solid, I would eat it.") – said by Jânio Quadros when asked by a reporter why he used to drink. Quadros' use of embedded, implicit nouns ("-o" and "-lo-") make the phrase overly formal for modern political speech.
  • "Vagabundo! Vagabundo! Respeita doente!" ("You scumbag! You scumbag! Respect the sick!") – said by Gilberto Kassab while throwing a protester out of a public hospital.
  • "Meus amigos e minhas amigas! Estou absolutamente convencido de que nunca antes na história deste país..." ("My friends and my friends! I am absolutely convinced that never before in the history of this country...") – said by Lula whenever he praises his own government.

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