Allies of the senator, pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, see the influencer as an ace up his son’s campaign sleeve. They assess that the businessman, a notable figure in the electoral race for São Paulo City Hall in 2024, can deliver digital capillarity and facilitate Flávio’s entry among voters in the outskirts.
Campaign strategists speculate that Marçal could act as the senator’s “spin doctor”, that is, an expert in controlling and manipulating information. On the other hand, the influencer’s history, which with provocations, controversies and factoids, could harm Flávio, who needs to reduce rejection to become viable.
Last month, Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son was surprised when, after a meeting with businesspeople in São Paulo, de Marçal in Alphaville, a kind of mecca where the influencer promotes his lectures. Flávio was taken by businessman Filipe Sabará, who has also served as the senator’s bridge and who coordinated Marçal’s government plan in 2024.
In November, the influencer had said that the right was hostage to Bolsonaro and that he was rooting for an outsider to become President.
Days after receiving Flávio, the report asked Marçal why he decided to support him. He responded that the senator is the only Bolsonaro with a “presidential profile” and said he intends to get involved in the campaign. “His heart is teachable.”
Sabará, who was a pupil of and later aligned himself with the Bolsonarists, says that Marçal’s support reinforces the conservative public’s support for Flávio, with his digital empire — on Instagram alone, the influencer has almost 13 million followers.
He also believes that Marçal can help the senator gain space on the outskirts, through the discourse of entrepreneurship, very prominent in the influencer’s speech. “There are a lot of conservative people in the outskirts who vote left because of income transfers. This vote is very interesting and important,” he says.
In the 2024 elections, Marçal won São Paulo and some districts in the north. In the electoral zone of Vila Formosa, in the east zone, the influencer had 34.59% of the votes. He ended the election with 28% of the votes, close to and , who faced each other in the second round.
Professor of political marketing at ESPM, with a long history in electoral campaigns, Marcelo Vitorino assesses that Marçal delivers more problems than solutions to Flávio. He says that the influencer generally talks to the same audience as the senator. To talk to the periphery, for example, a better alternative would be to walk with evangelicals, who do not have a negative charge.
Vitorino says that the influencer could be useful in building the candidacy of a little-known figure – the opposite of Flávio. “Where he has something to add is not where Flávio needs it. He needs to show the ability to unite people around a project. Marçal doesn’t do that, quite the opposite”, he states.
For the strategist, the association with the influencer could even attract more rejection for the senator. The Genial/Quaest survey in December showed that 60% of those interviewed said they would not vote for Flávio. The factor is cited for the centrão’s mass support for the campaign, as it makes it difficult to win over the center in the second round.
“Marçal knows very well how to use algorithms to project himself, but he also makes mistakes. He himself is ineligible due to the maneuvers he made in the municipal dispute”, he says. “[Se eu fosse o marqueteiro da campanha] I would use it in a limited way and with supervision. He may even win, but then he loses his mandate because he broke the rules.”
The visit to Marçal’s mecca has already added the influencer’s expressions to Flávio’s vocabulary. In an interview with Bolsonaro blogger Paulo Figueiredo, released on Wednesday (7), the senator stated that his dream is to “turn the key to prosperity in the minds of the Brazilian people.”
Flávio spoke about the need to change the mentality of people who are happy to receive Bolsa Família. “That’s what motivates me, changing this mentality. Look, we can, we can do it. It depends on us”, he said. Figueiredo noticed Marçal’s fingerprint and asked: “Your new friend Pablo Marçal calls it turning the code, isn’t that it?”
The senator responded that the influencer welcomed him with open arms. “We had already exchanged some ideas a while ago. He said: ‘What do you want me to help you with?’. He was giving a talk, [falei] ‘Come on, I’m going to ask your audience to pray with me’. He opened up his stage, which he wouldn’t do for just anyone.”
That day, Marçal’s audience gave the senator a standing ovation. In a video posted online, Flávio points to his arm, signaling that he has goosebumps. “The doors are open for you, let’s go to war together,” said Marçal.
The senator spoke a few words and began a prayer: “I am covered in Christ, the enemy does not see me, he sees Jesus.”
The influencer stated that that act was not political, but prophetic. “People don’t believe he has full capacity, it’s just that these people don’t know him.”
Marçal and the Bolsonaro family became closer in 2022, when they negotiated the use of the influencer’s digital knowledge in favor of the then president’s re-election. In the campaign for São Paulo City Hall, Bolsonaro was among his voters, winning these votes even after the family took a stand in favor of Mayor Ricardo Nunes.
Worried, the former federal deputy and councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (PL) opened fire on Marçal, who went so far as to call the latter a “retarded”. The Bolsonaro supporters’ support for the businessman, however, led the family to retreat to reduce the political damage caused by the episode.
