Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) arrived in Brasília at the beginning of this week with the aim of discussing what line of defense will be adopted in the investigation into the alleged attempted coup d’état. In addition to meetings with lawyers, the expectation is that he will meet over the next few days with his closest political leaders.
The movement comes shortly after Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), removed the confidentiality of the Federal Police report that calls for the indictment of Bolsonaro and 36 other people. From now on, the document will be under analysis by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which will decide whether to file charges against those involved.
This Tuesday (26), the former president’s defense informed that it requested a copy of the more than 800 pages of the investigation report. Bolsonaro was in Alagoas and it was from there that he received, last week, confirmation that his name was among those indicted by the Federal Police for attempted coup d’état.
Before that, the former president also accompanied from Alagoas, on Tuesday (19), the PF’s Operation Countercoup that targeted reserve general Mario Fernandes, three other military personnel and a federal police officer, suspected of making a plan to execute Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Geraldo Alckmin and minister Alexandre de Moraes in 2022.
To his interlocutors, the former president denied any involvement in the case and admitted that the indictment was already expected by his defense. Upon arriving in the federal capital, Bolsonaro stated that he had studied all possible measures within the “four lines” of the Constitution and that there was never, on his part, any discussion of a coup d’état in the country after the 2022 presidential election.
“I didn’t take it forward. Even for defense status. I didn’t summon anyone and I didn’t sign a paper. I tried to find out if there was any way in the Constitution to resolve the problem. There was no way to resolve it, it was discarded,” said the former president.
When asked what the “problem” to be solved would be, Bolsonaro stated that he “had dissatisfaction in Brazil”. He also highlighted that he had no knowledge of the alleged coup plan. “Scam? Zero. The word coup was never in my dictionary”, he added.
Bolsonaro wants to maintain influence with right-wing leaders in Brasília
The expectation from now on, according to members of the PL, is that Bolsonaro will dedicate part of his agenda to defending himself against the accusations presented in the investigation. One of the strategies of the former president’s allies will be precisely to question minister Alexandre de Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the case at the STF.
After a possible complaint by the PGR, it will be up to the STF minister to conduct the trial in the Court. “Minister Alexandre de Moraes conducts the entire investigation, adjusts statements, arrests without complaint”, accused the former president after the request for indictment.
Bolsonaro made a reference to the judge instructing Moraes’ office at the STF, Airton Vieira, who had asked the expert Eduardo Tagliaferro, at the time an employee of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to use “creativity” against Revista Oeste in a report by TSE’s Special Advisory Committee on Combating Disinformation (AEED) after the 2022 elections.
Allies of the former president believe that questions about the alleged judicial activism of the STF minister will be one of the main points of the defense. Since last week, the deputies closest to Bolsonaro in the PL have already been adopting this tone regarding the conclusion of the investigations.
“We need to use creativity to comment, in the same way as Moraes’ assistant judges do”, commented deputy Júlia Zanatta (PL-SC).
Deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ) said that the word of the day was “creativity”. “If anyone wants to know what this word means, just ask Minister Alexandre de Moraes,” he said.
Bolsonaro must meet with members of the PL bench to align the political tone that will be adopted by the party. The national president of the party, Valdemar da Costa Neto, is also on the list of indictees, but remains prevented from maintaining contact with the former president by decision of Moraes.
“Minister Alexandre de Moraes himself, of the Federal Supreme Court, who is questioning the witness, the whistleblower, and, two days before, the entire press announced that, if he did not say what needed to be said, he could lose the benefits of your denunciation. What kind of Brazil is this!? Where are we? We can’t trivialize this type of situation”, said the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Rogério Marinho (PL-RN).
Strategy to keep your name as a candidate for 2026
One of the bets from those around Bolsonaro is that he will try to remain the main political force on the right for 2026. Despite the ineligibility declared by the Electoral Court until 2030, the former president has repeated that he will be the name in this political field.
A survey released this Wednesday (27) by the Paraná Pesquisas institute showed Bolsonaro technically tied with Lula in voting intentions for the presidential election, but numerically ahead, with 37.6% of voting intentions, against 33.6% for the PT member. (see methodology below). Of the names on the right polled to run in the election in 2026, such as governor Tarcísio de Freitas and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, the former president is the one who has the best performance against the current president.
The expectation within the PL, according to leaders interviewed by People’s Gazetteis to maintain the strategy of trying to reverse ineligibility through the political scenario. To achieve this, Bolsonaro must also dedicate himself to party events across the country as a way of showing popular support until the case is eventually analyzed by the STF.
In the Senate plenary, the opposition leader, Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), stated that the approval of the amnesty would be a way of “disarming spirits”.
“When we defend an amnesty, we do not do so because we want to amnesty crimes, even because we defend that those who prey are punished, we want to disarm minds. We can no longer trivialize the fact that ministers of the Federal Supreme Court are constantly playing politics, making statements policies, in addition to their prerogatives as magistrates. This unbalances Brazilian democracy”, he said.
The former president’s defense works with the hypothesis that the PGR should only comment on the case from February of next year, after the Judiciary recess. Until then, his allies do not believe in the possibility of Bolsonaro’s preventive arrest, as this would have a “high political cost”.
Despite this, after being asked if he feared being arrested because of the investigations, the former president stated that he could be detained at any time. “I could be arrested now, when I leave here (the airport)”, commented Bolsonaro upon landing in Brasília.
At the same time, there is also an articulation with the members of the PL so that the former president remains close to the governors who aim to run for president in 2026 in the right-wing camp. Names such as Ronaldo Caiado (União), from Goiás; Romeu Zema (Novo), from Minas Gerais; and Ratinho Jr (PSD), from Paraná.
What the PF complaint says
As shown by People’s Gazetteaccording to a Federal Police report, Jair Bolsonaro “planned, directed and executed” acts to abolish the Democratic Rule of Law and consummate a coup d’état. The attempt to remain in power after the electoral defeat in 2022, according to the investigators, only failed to materialize “due to circumstances beyond his control”, mainly due to the opposition of the then commander of the Air Force, Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior; from the Army, General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes; and the majority of the Army High Command.
In addition to the former president, the PF accused General Walter Braga Netto of pressuring the commanders of the Armed Forces to join the alleged coup plan. Braga Netto was vice-president on Bolsonaro’s ticket in the presidential race.
“The evidence described throughout this report demonstrated that the Navy commander, Admiral Almir Garnier, and the Minister of Defense, Paulo Sérgio, joined the coup attempt. However, commanders Freire Gomes, from the Army, and Baptista Júnior, from the Air Force, were against any measure that would cause institutional rupture in the country. In view of this, Jair Bolsonaro sought and obtained the support of the then commander of the Land Operations Command (Coter), General Estevam Theóphilo”, says another excerpt from the PF report.
Braga Netto denies any articulation for a coup. “It was never a coup, much less a plan to assassinate someone. Now part of the press comes up with this fanciful and absurd thesis of a ‘coup within a coup’. Let there be creativity,” said the former Minister of the Civil House in his profile on “X”.
The former minister’s defense stated this Wednesday that the notes found by the PF on the desk of the former minister’s advisor, Colonel Peregrino at the PL headquarters and treated as a “coup plan” were material responding to demands from the press and for participation in Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry (CPIs).
The material was seized in February this year, when the PL’s national headquarters was searched and seized during the Operação Time of Truth. According to the PF, the seized material contains a plan called “Operation 142” with the outline of a “decree establishing a state of exception in Brazil”.
Research methodology cited
The research by the Paraná Pesquisas institute was carried out through personal interviews, between November 21st and 25th, 2024. The interviewers interviewed 2,014 voters, aged 16 and over, in 86 municipalities in the 26 states and the Federal District. The confidence level is 95% and the margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.
