Four right-wing governors tipped for the Presidency of the Republic in 2026 have already expressed their opposition to the arrest of the former president () and signaled that they would grant him amnesty for trying to carry out a coup d’état if they were elected.
(Republicanos-SP), . (PSD-PR), (Novo-MG) and (-GO) are the main names admitted by leaders and parliamentarians from the right and the center as possibilities for next year’s presidential race.
The minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) made official, this Tuesday (25), 27 years and 3 months in prison for the coup plot. The former president will serve his sentence at the Federal Police Superintendence in Brasília, where he is, after violating the electronic ankle monitor.
In June, the senator (PL-RJ), eldest son of the former president, told Sheet that the father would only support a candidate who granted him a pardon and that if necessary.
Until Saturday, Flávio was treated as a possible heir to his father in the 2026 presidential election. But the senator’s name lost strength after he justified Bolsonaro’s arrest, such as the one in front of the condominium where the former president was under house arrest.
Politicians from the center saw the situation as an opportunity to push for a presidential ticket supported by Bolsonaro, but without the name of . The favorite is Tarcísio, who was Bolsonaro’s Minister of Infrastructure.
The governor publicly denies his intention to run for president, but has already declared that he would speak to the former president on the first day of government, if he were elected.
“On time. First act. Because I think that everything that is happening is absolutely unreasonable,” Tarcísio told Diário do Grande ABC in August.
Caiado said: “On the first day, I will sign a broad, general and unrestricted amnesty for everyone [os condenados] of the 8th of January, including Jair Bolsonaro”, said the governor of Goiás in September.
“I know the commitments I make and the responsibility I have. I don’t use demagoguery, I talk about amnesty to pacify Brazil,” he added.
Zema, in an interview with Sheet in June, he also declared that .
“Weren’t pardons granted to murderers and kidnappers here, during what they call the dictatorship? Now you’re not going to grant them?”, he asked, treating as a matter of interpretation the repression of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), which persecuted, tortured and killed political opponents.
Among the governors mentioned, only Ratinho Jr. did not openly defend amnesty for Bolsonaro.
The governor of Paraná classified the arrest as insensitivity on the part of the STF and, but without saying how – the term “pacification” has been used by Bolsonarists to try to move forward with the amnesty project in .
“The population is not happy with the persecution of a former president. Brazil needs to turn the page on hatred, delay, fighting and write a new era,” said Ratinho in September, shortly after Bolsonaro was condemned by the STF.
After visiting his father this Tuesday, Flávio said that Bolsonaro himself asked him from the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), to guide the amnesty project.
The PL, in a meeting on Monday (24), defined that in Congress to unlock the amnesty process.
