// Wilson Dias / Agência Brasil
Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro with his father, former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro
Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro presents himself as a more moderate version of his imprisoned father and former president, and says he is “the Bolsonaro they always wanted”. But his surname remains, at the same time, his most powerful weapon and his greatest liability.
From a 12 square meter cell in a federal police facility in Brasília, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro made what could be the most decisive decision of his political life after leaving power.
Ignoring the advisors who urged him to remove the powerful political movement he created from his own name, he turned to his eldest son, Flávio, aged 44, and said to him: “Try to serve yourself“.
Jair Bolsonaro, 71 years old, serving a 27-year prison sentence for having tried overthrow Brazil’s democratic order following the 2022 electoral defeat, recalls .
According to prosecutors, led a conspiracywhich included plans for assassinate your successorthe left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaand other leaders.
Bolsonaro denies all accusations, and his supporters, including the President of the United States, Donald Trumpclassify the judicial process as political persecution.
Now, says the New York newspaper, Flavio Bolsonaro entered the presidential race with a double mission: lead the right-wing movement most powerful in Brazil since the end of the military regime in 1985, and get forgiveness for the father. “I can’t stay away from him. I will defend him and his government,” Flávio told the Post.
The youngest Bolsonaro will try a difficult balance exercise. Need maintain the fervent loyalty of the father’s basea populist bloc often compared to Trump’s MAGA movement, and, at the same time, going beyond it, especially among womenwho represent 52% of the electorate and who have historically resisted the abrasive style of Bolsonaro Sr.
“I have my feet on the ground — I am more inclined towards dialogue and building bridges”, said Flávio. “I’m the Bolsonaro they always wanted“.
Lawyer by training and senator With two decades of political experience, Flávio presents himself as more considered and less confrontational than the father.
However, his political positions are unmistakably familiar. He denied that his father attempted a coup d’état, called for the removal of the Supreme Court judge who presided over the sentencing, promised to combat “radical and woke environmentalist” agendas and advocated tougher security measures, including lowering the age of criminal responsibility for violent crimes to 14.
The electoral race promises to be extremely competitive. The first surveys gave the Lula, now 80 years old and running for a fourth presidential term, a double-digit advantage.
However, more recent surveys, carried out in a context of rising prices and growing frustration with the governmentsuggest that the dispute has narrowed to a technical draw.
Analysts attribute the change to deep political polarization and a global trend in Latin America, where concerns about crime and incumbent attrition have pushed voters to the right.
“There is a strong anti-Lula feeling and a sense of fatigue towards him and his Workers’ Party,” said political analyst Thomas Traumann to the Post. “At the same time, the best scenario for Lula is precisely to face Bolsonaro, because the nickname is also a passive“.
Flávio’s candidacy is not exempt from its own ballast. He was accused of involvement in a corrupt salary embezzlement scheme public servants and links to extrajudicial militia agents in Rio de Janeiro.
Although prosecutors have advanced embezzlement accusations and money laundering, the case was archived after the Superior Court of Justice considered that the evidence had been obtained irregularly. Flávio denies any wrongdoing.
Even loyal allies question whether the name Bolsonaro is capable of winning. The influential evangelical pastor Silas Malafaiaa key figure in the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, suggested that other conservative candidates, such as the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitascould have performed better against Lula.
“Flávio is more flexible than his father, which is great for a leader,” said Malafaia. “But the hard basis of Bolsonarism, in itself, will not be enough to make him win.”
To researcher Camila Rochafrom the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, notes that Flávio is seen as the most conciliatory of Jair Bolsonaro’s politically active children, and that his youth conveys “a feeling of renewal” against an aging incumbent.
Flávio insists that the decision to apply was strategic, not sentimental. “Not that it is up to political instinctno one in Brazil is better than my father”, says the senator.
Whether this instinct, exercised behind bars, will be enough to return Bolsonaro to power is the question that will define Brazil’s most important election in a generation, concludes the Post.
