About

Padre Kelmon is a Brazilian politician who affiliated to the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB)^[1]. He was a candidate for the 2022 Brazil General Election.

History

Kelmon Luís da Silva Souza was born in 1976 in Acajutiba, Bahia, in 2002 he joined the PT until 2009 when he joined the PTB.

2022 Brazil General Election

Jefferson's candidacy was rejected, his vice-presidential candidate, Padre Kelmon, was chosen as the presidential candidate on September 1st, 2022. In the SBT debate, on September 24th, 2022, Kelmon defended the President Jair Bolsonaro^[2]. On October 2nd the elections started and he lost, having only 0.07% of the votes^[3].

Debate on TV Globo

During his participation in the TV Globo debate on September 29th, 2022, Padre Kelmon returned to defend President Bolsonaro. He got into an discussion with Senator Soraya who said "You are not afraid to go to hell"(shown below, left) and and calls he "Priesthood of Festa Junina"(shown below, right.)

He also discuted with ex-president Lula, where he was called "imposter", "orange candidate" and "Pharisee".(shown below.) Kelmon went viral due to his constant interruptions to his opponents' speeches, being warned at several times by William Bonner, who asked him if he knew that the debate had rules. After more interruptions, Bonner said, "You really decided to institute a new rule in this debate."

Memes

In the debate, there was a moment when Soraya misspelled Kelmon's name, calling him Padre Kelson, Padre Kelvin and Candidato Padre(shown below.)

On September 29th, the Twitter account @YuriMarcal posted a tweet saying "as a priest of Festa Junina, I want to say that Kelmon does not represent us", the tweet received 159,000 likes in 5 days(shown below.)

como padre de festa junina, quero dizer que o Kelmon não nos representa pic.twitter.com/Q528X6Hic6

— Jesus (@YuriMarcal) September 30, 2022

On September 29th, the Twitter account @Brunozor posted a tweet where it says that after the debate the priest won't go up to heaven, the tweet received 15,000 likes in 5 days(shown below.)

depois desse debate o padre pic.twitter.com/8FTxKwV9pD

— brino (@Brunozor) September 30, 2022

On September 30th, the TikTok account @slashhlg uploaded a video compiling Kelmon's moments in the debate, receiving 8,400,000 views and 1,100,000 likes in 4 days(shown below.)

Religion

Kelmon claims to be an Orthodox Catholic^[4]. However, he was never a priest of the orthodox churches in Brazil. He also claims to belong to the Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church of Peru, which has already been accused of fraud. On September 30, CNBB published a note stating that Kelmon does not belong to the Roman Catholic Church.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References