Presidential election in Brazil: Bolsonaro’s son Flávio named candidate

Argentina’s right-wing president Javier Milei also campaigned for Flávio Bolsonaro at the party conference. “I firmly believe that no one is in a position like him to deal with the Lula risk that is hanging over Brazil,” said the controversial head of state of the neighboring country.

The 80 year old Lula wants to run for another term at the helm of the South American country in the presidential election in the fall. He narrowly defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election.

Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed parliament

At the beginning of 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the government district in the capital Brasília. They attacked and vandalized the parliament, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. The scenes were reminiscent of the attack on the Capitol in Washington by supporters of the then-elected US President Donald Trump two years earlier. Bolsonaro did not explicitly recognize Lula’s election victory and repeatedly spoke of electoral fraud.

Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced the ultra-right ex-head of state to a good 27 years in prison last September for a planned coup. He was found guilty of leading a “criminal organization” to overturn his 2022 election defeat against Lula. The 71-year-old began his prison sentence in November.