of the former president, leaders and members of the organization are beginning to plan ways to get around his absence during next year’s election period.
These strategies range from the use of cardboard figures of Bolsonaro at party events to the suggestion of announcing the former president’s support for party candidates.
The idea of using the tool to produce content with Bolsonaro reached the party president, . Some PL members, however, are against it. Some fear that the strategy will open the door for candidates not supported by the former president to do the same, in search of electoral gains.
Furthermore, there is concern among some of the group that materials produced with AI expose candidates to attacks by adversaries, who could try to classify the pieces as misleading even if it is clear that they were created with this type of tool.
Professor of Law at USP (University of São Paulo) and researcher on the topic, Juliano Maranhão says that the use of in this case would in principle be regular, as long as it is indicated in the publication itself, as determined by the . The content also could not lead voters to believe that the former president is free, he states.
“It could not be used to deceive voters. Due to the fact that he is in prison, if he gives the opposite impression, then he could be questioned as to whether he would be misinforming, giving a wrong perception”, he says.
In the event that unauthorized candidates use the former president’s image in AIs to pretend that they are supported by him, Maranhão states that the PL could take action to remove the disinformative content from the networks.
After , members of his political group have already published montages with him to signal support and closeness. This is the case of the vice-mayor of São Paulo, who joined the ticket led by mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB).
The vice-mayor says he produced and published the montages on his own initiative, as an endorsement of Bolsonaro. In Whatsapp groups with supporters, Bolsonaro representatives from São Paulo received links to tools that allow images of the former president to be inserted into user photos.
On another front, PL events have multiplied banners and cardboard images of the former president, since he was arrested in early August. At the vigil called by the senator, on the 22nd, for example, he spoke and prayed next to a life-size cardboard image of his father.
The organization of the event was one of the reasons that led to Bolsonaro’s request for preventive detention, hours earlier. Since then, the former president has been held at the PF (Federal Police) Superintendence in Brasília, where Moraes ordered his sentence to be served for the coup plot.
PL deputies assess that the candidates who are likely to suffer most from Bolsonaro’s absence are those who do not have an electoral base in the states, are more present on the networks and are more dependent on the ideological vote.
Only in the first half of 2024, the year of municipal elections, Bolsonaro between São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, the three main electoral colleges in the country.
In theory, high-profile figures, such as the former first lady and the federal deputy, could fill the void left by the former president as an electoral campaigner in 2026. In last year’s election, the two partially assumed this role, traveling around Brazil and recording content in support of other candidates.
Michelle and Nikolas, however, will be involved next year — he will seek re-election and she must run for the Senate in the Federal District —, which will reduce the time available to dedicate themselves to supporters.
In the first round, the expectation is that they will dedicate themselves to their electoral colleges, but they could assume a more important role in the second round in the campaigns for governors and the Presidency.
Bolsonaro’s allies, since the beginning of the year, had already been complaining that a possible arrest would make an electoral campaign for all right-wing positions difficult.
Within the scope of the narrative that the former president would be the target of political persecution, this is cited as one of the reasons for the arrest — the idea that it would also be enacted to hinder the election of Bolsonarist candidates.
This is also one of the justifications that the center gives for, still in 2025, a successor to Bolsonaro’s estate at Palácio do Planalto. Leaders would like to start running a more targeted campaign with a new name.
On another front, proximity to Bolsonaro could increase the rejection of some candidates. According to party members who measure these possibilities, Flávio Bolsonaro would carry more rejection with his name than governor Tarcísio de Fretas (Republicans), as a presidential candidate.
The assessment is that Tarcísio, appointed by Bolsonaro, is seen by the electorate as a kind of evolution of Bolsonaroism, according to an ally. And, if the governor is indeed nominated, he has a lot of historical material alongside the former president to explore in the campaign.
