The federal deputy (-MG) exceeded the former president (PL) in measuring engagement with each publication on social networks. The ranking is led by former first lady (PL), political personality with the posts that generate the most reactions on the internet, according to data from consultancy Bites raised at the request of Sheet.
In 2025, each publication of the pair provokes, on average, more interactions than the content published by the former Mandator. In Michelle’s case, the comments, likes and shares are more than double those received by her husband. In the case of the deputy, the index is 40% higher than Bolsonaro.
On the left, the scenario is similar. The first lady Rosângela da Silva, A, gets more reactions to each post than her husband, the president (). The petista, known for being averse to the use of cell phones and social networks, also produces less interactions than the deputy (-SP).
Bites data refer to publications made from January 1st to May 30th no, no, at, X and no. Instagram stories, publications that disappear after 24 hours do not enter the calculation, as the numbers are not public. They count as interactions the likes, comments and reposting of content by other users, which increases the reach of the information.
Quoted to run for the presidency in place of her husband, Michelle is the political personality that generates greater posting by posting, according to the Bites survey. Each publication in networks generates, on average, 191.8 thousand reactions. Bolsonaro’s cause 94,000 on average.
Michelle does not figure among politicians with the highest total engagement (added all interactions of all publications) because she made fewer posts: 81 in the period analyzed, with 15.5 million reactions in total. The former president, who is the political figure with the largest number of followers in the country, posted 2,841 times in the period and reached 267 million interactions.
Another difference is that the former first lady concentrates her performance on Instagram, with 7.1 million followers, but does not keep active profiles on other platforms-with an exception of YouTube, where an account on her name has not received videos for two years.
Nikolas, the most voted deputy in the past election, has 131.5 thousand reactions per publication, on average, according to Bites – which makes him the second politician with the greatest engagement. In total, the 1,511 publications made by him in the period reached 198.7 million answers.
The deputy gained prominence with videos that affected the popularity of Lula and made the government of revenue that expanded the inspection of the Pix to detect cases of money laundering. He accused the petista of wanting to use the measure to charge more taxes.
The video has reached and the number of followers on Instagram. The publication was not the only one to go viral. Since January, 29 of the 49 videos published by him on the platform have been seen more than 10 million times, according to a survey of Sheet. The least assisted reached 2.8 million reproductions.
For comparison, Bolsonaro published 348 videos on his Instagram feed this year, and only 19 exceeded 10 million views. An advertisement for the motorcycle helmet he launched was seen only 71,000 times, although he has 27 million followers.
Bites technical director André Eleg says Michelle and Nikolas have a greater ability than Bolsonaro to move networks at specific events. The former first lady, for an engagement of women and the evangelical public to their contents, and the deputy, for having a funnier and more forceful material in attacks on the government.
This does not mean, according to Eler, that they became larger leaders than the former president. “The biggest digital leadership was certainly Bolsonaro and I would say it is still Bolsonaro because of this consistency, to stay at the top all the time,” he says.
One of the reasons for the greatest post engagement by Michelle and Nikolas, according to the director of Bites, is that both have more focused content. “Bolsonaro needs to have a greater frequency than both of them in the content. He is commenting all the time. They talk less in more specific issues,” he says.
On the other hand, according to the data, the former president has lost engagement since leaving the government. In 2022, the year in which he disputed the reelection (which raises the metric), each publication received an average of 153,000 interactions. The number fell to 121 thousand in 2023 and 94 thousand now.
Already Michelle generates a lot of attention and leads this ranking since 2022, but with less publications. Nikolas has been growing systematically and this year managed to overtake Bolsonaro.
Another name with strong engagement is federal deputy Fábio Teruel (MDB-SP), singer and gospel broadcaster who is the politician with the most followers on YouTube. He usually uses the platform to publicize religious prayers and messages and are little about politics.
This week, he was criticized for sending a parliamentary amendment where he lives.
Already on the left has three politicians in the top 10: Janja (average of 59.1 thousand reactions per publication), Deputy Erika Hilton (44.3 thousand) and Lula (43,300).
Like Michelle, Janja concentrates her performance on less platforms and made a much smaller number of publications (79) than her husband’s (1,989), whose profiles are managed by the government. She publishes on Instagram and Tiktok and stopped writing in August at X – Esses before, the platform owner, the billionaire.
The other three politicians who complete the ranking are right: Senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicans-MG), Deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE) and the governor of, (Republicans).
