The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), visits this Thursday the former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the 19th Battalion of the Military Police of the Federal District (PM-DF), known as “Papudinha”, in a meeting that takes place after an episode of political tension involving the environment of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ). The meeting was authorized by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and is scheduled for the period between 11am and 1pm.
The visit comes after the cancellation of a first meeting, last week, when a statement by Flávio anticipating the content of the conversation generated discomfort around the governor.
At the time, the senator stated that Bolsonaro would tell Tarcísio that his priority should be re-election in São Paulo and that a presidential candidacy would be “ruled out” for him. The speech was interpreted by the governor’s allies as an attempt at public framing, raising the political cost of a gesture that had been treated as personal.
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Hours later, Tarcísio canceled the visit under the formal justification of commitments in the state, but interlocutors reported discomfort with the repercussion of the statement and with the reading that the meeting could be used as a sign of automatic alignment with Flávio’s pre-candidacy for the Planalto.
Since then, the speech around the senator has changed its tone. Flávio began to treat the meeting as a personal conversation and stated that it would be “another chat between friends”, in a move interpreted as an attempt to reduce wear and tear and deflate the electoral nature of the meeting.
— My father will really enjoy having Tarcísio there. I think it will be good for them to chat. It will be more of a chat between friends. If it depends on me, the right will be united — he told GLOBO.
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Behind the scenes, the assessment is that this Thursday’s visit works as a gesture of relaxation after last week’s noise, but does not end the dispute over Tarcísio’s role in the 2026 arrangement. The governor publicly maintains the position that he is a candidate for re-election in São Paulo and avoids taking on additional commitments on the national scene at this time.
The meeting also takes place in a context in which Bolsonaro, even in prison, remains a point of convergence for the conservative camp. The sequence of requests for visits from allies has been read as a movement of rapprochement and political positioning, amid the internal reaccommodation of the right.
In the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto has defended that all electoral decisions must be reviewed by the former president. Flávio’s pre-campaign coordinator, Rogério Marinho, was authorized to visit him on the 4th.
