Bolsonaro will stay at Palácio dos Bandeirantes before the event – 02/22/2024 – Power

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will stay at Palácio dos Bandeirantes, at the invitation of governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), to go to the demonstration he called for on Sunday (25), on Avenida Paulista.

Bolsonaro will arrive in São Paulo on Saturday (24) and is expected to bring together politicians allied with Bandeirantes before the event.

The former president has already stayed at Bandeirantes, the headquarters of the Government of São Paulo, on at least three other occasions, such as when he was in the capital of São Paulo for surgery to correct a deviated septum, in September last year.

An ally of Bolsonaro, Tarcísio is one of the three governors who have already confirmed their presence at the event, in addition to Jorginho Mello (PL-SC) and Ronaldo Caiado (União Brasil-GO). The governor of São Paulo should be one of the few to speak at the event, according to Bolsonaro stated this Wednesday (21).

“Miss Michelle [Bolsonaro] saying a prayer. It would be Governor Tarcísio, Pastor Silas Malafaia himself and me. At first only these people will speak. What is the message there? In defense of the democratic rule of law, our freedom and a portrait for Brazil and images for the world of what we, in green and yellow, want: God, country, family and freedom.”

According to Fabio Wajngarten, lawyer and former secretary of Bolsonaro, more than one hundred deputies are expected on Avenida Paulista. Bolsonaro deputies justified their participation in the demonstration by stating that there is persecution against the former president and that it is necessary to show support for him at this time.

On the 12th, Bolsonaro recorded a video calling supporters to the act, amid Federal Police investigations that point to the former president’s role in planning a coup d’état to stay in power.

In the video, Bolsonaro asks supporters not to carry banners and posters against anyone. “At this event I want to defend myself against all the accusations that have been made against me in recent months,” he said.

The request now to supporters not to carry banners and posters at the event on February 25th is a strategy to avoid increasing the dispute with the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who should be the main target of the event and who presides over investigations that could lead Bolsonaro to new convictions.

If he is prosecuted and convicted of the crimes of attempted coup d’état, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal association, the former president could face a sentence of up to 23 years in prison and be ineligible for more than 30 years.

Bolsonaro has already been convicted by the TSE for attacks and lies about the electoral system and is the target of different other investigations at the STF. Right now, he is ineligible until at least 2030.