Bolsonaro returns to Brazil under suspicion of allies – 03/29/2023 – Politics

Three months after traveling to the United States and disregarding the democratic rite of symbolically transmitting power to his successor, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) returns to Brazil this Thursday (30th) amid distrust from allies about his role in the opposition against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT).

The expectation of leaders of the PL heard by the Sheet is that, with the return of Bolsonaro, a schedule of trips around the country and the call for pronouncements to criticize Lula will help the former president to regain a prominent position.

Another focus, according to Bolsonaro’s allies, will be the formation of candidates for the 2024 municipal elections, considered as a thermometer for the 2026 presidential election.

Bolsonaro boarded on the night of this Wednesday (29) at the airport in Orlando, Florida, heading to Brazil – where, according to the flight forecast, he should arrive around 7:10 am this Thursday. After getting on the plane, still in the US, he was applauded, but a passenger shouted “jail”. The aircraft took off around 23:00 (Brasília time).

On boarding, Bolsonaro sought to remove, in an interview with CNN Brasil, his role as leader of the opposition.

“The PL holds almost 20% of the benches in the Chamber and the Senate. I say: I will not lead any opposition. I will participate with my party, as an experienced person, 28 years in the Chamber, four as president, two as councilor and 15 Army, to collaborate with those who so wish,” he said.

“Today we have a right wing that is increasingly coalescing, it knows what it wants, it knows what it wants, it has a target, an objective. It is not irresponsible opposition, opposition for the sake of the opposition”, he said.

Bolsonaro declined to answer questions from the Sheet about his return and the subpoena made by the Federal Police to testify about the case of the jewels presented by Saudi Arabia.

There is an internal assessment in the PL that the former president failed to take advantage of Lula’s mistakes while he was in the United States and saw other politicians gain space in their antagonism to the PT —such as Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), cited in an investigation by the Federal Police as a target of the PCC in criminal plans.

Bolsonaro still has to respond to a series of lawsuits that could make him ineligible and damage his image.

The PL command outlines a strategy to try to position Bolsonaro as leader of the opposition against Lula. Allies say that the function is complex, since the former president does not hold public office and no longer has the overexposure of a president of the Republic.

The plan is to take advantage of the image of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro in advertising campaigns and travel, with the aim of further disseminating Bolsonarism among evangelicals and breaking resistance from the female public to the former president.

One of Bolsonaro’s main allies, former Communications Secretary Fabio Wajngarten says he believes the former president will have to “do politics”. “[Ele] He’s going to travel around Brazil, he’s going to actively participate in the municipal elections that will pave the way for [eleições] 2026,” Wajngarten told Sheet.

The focus of the PL is to define strong candidacies in the main capitals of the country, such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and build a base in the Northeast to face the favoritism that Lula has had for 20 years in the region.

For this, the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, has scheduled a team in Brasilia to think about the 2024 candidacies together with the regional directories. The group is led by reserve general Braga Netto, former head of the Civil House of Bolsonaro and current secretary of Institutional Relations of the party.

A pragmatic position in the opposition is advocated even by the most ideological wing of the party. One of the former president’s sons, federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) defended Sheet that the father abandon the motociatas, as the ex-president’s motorcycle rides with supporters became known, and use his political influence to inflame anti-petism.

“As long as the enemy is making mistakes, it’s good for you to let that pass,” said Eduardo, evaluating what he considers Lula’s failures at the beginning of the government. “Of course, I’m not the owner of his agenda, but I advise him not to do motociatas. Now is the time to focus on issues of mismanagement.”

Eduardo also says that Bolsonaro should “fall headlong” into the municipal campaign, with a travel agenda, to try to recreate the Bolsonarist wave of the 2018 elections.

Federal deputy Capitão Augusto (PL-SP), vice-president of the party, says that Bolsonaro will have three important roles after his return: leading the opposition, strengthening the PL and boosting the candidacy of the municipal elections.

“There’s a lot of work, so I think it needs to be a conscious opposition. Criticizing what needs to be criticized — more sniper than 12 shot with pellets. When he is going to criticize the government, it has to be something well directed in the economy, in the foreign relations, security”, says Augusto.

Despite the expectations of the leaders of the Liberal Party, Bolsonaro’s allies spent the four years of his government trying to fit the former president into a pragmatic and politically focused agenda, to avoid unnecessary wear and tear.

Bolsonaro, however, maintained an aggressive profile and used public ceremonies to attack political opponents and STF (Federal Supreme Court) ministers. Even against advice, he invited ambassadors to an audience at the Palácio da Alvorada to spread false information with an attack on electronic voting machines.

Members of the PL summit consulted by the Sheet claim, with reservation, that Bolsonaro’s bellicose posture has more bonuses than burdens in the position of oppositionist — balance that, in their assessment, is the opposite of the tenant of the Planalto Palace.

One of the fears, however, is that Bolsonaro will use his political comeback to reissue public statements praising the anniversary of the 1964 military coup, on Friday (31).

Unlike the trip to the US, when a FAB (Brazilian Air Force) plane took Bolsonaro and his entourage, he scheduled to travel back to Brazil on a commercial plane.

In the seat next to him would be Tércio Arnaud Tomaz, a former Bolsonaro adviser and one of the members of the group dubbed the “hate office”. The entourage would still have the president’s security guards, linked to the GSI (Institutional Security Office), and other advisors who accompanied him in the US.

In Brazil, Bolsonaro’s first destination will be the headquarters of the PL, in the central area of ​​Brasília, where he is expected to meet with parliamentarians from the party for a closed event.

Bolsonaro’s return mobilized the security forces of the Federal District around an operational plan to prevent new scenes of vandalism or riots from taking over the federal capital.

The Federal Police decided that the former president will not leave through the traditional lobby of Brasília’s international airport, to prevent him from maintaining contact with supporters who are organizing to welcome the politician there.

The objective, according to the PF superintendent in the Federal District, Cezar de Souza, is to avoid crowds of people at the airport and a possible impact on the boarding and disembarking of passengers.