Bolsonaro’s candidacy for the presidency in 2026 is “natural”, says senator Flávio

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), is working for his father to be a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic in 2026 and keep the party united until then, according to an interview with Politics 360 published in this Friday (10).

According to the senator, over the four years he was in charge of the government, Bolsonaro created “many leaders along with him” that make him viable as a candidate in the next presidential election. Which makes his candidacy in 2026 “natural”.

“It is good to remember that he always gave credit to the minister responsible for a positive measure by the government. No wonder so many people who were aligned with Bolsonaro, with the right, with conservatism, were elected senators, federal deputies”, he said, adding that his work as leader of the minority in Congress will be for Bolsonaro “to be the candidate in 2026” .

This candidacy, he says, should be for the PL, which should position itself as a “center-right” party. The party is currently split between supporters in favor of the former president and others who may form a base for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Flávio sees Bolsonaro’s defeat at the polls in 2022 as a “mismatch” in the treatment given by the Electoral Court to his father’s and PT’s campaign, such as requests to remove content from social networks, among others. “It was very difficult for us to request something. On the other side, it was different. And even so, we managed to get an expressive vote, half of Brazil with him”, he says.

For the senator, a false narrative is being created that Bolsonaro left the country even before Lula took office for fear of being arrested. Flávio disputes this and claims that there is no reason for this to happen, unless “it is the will of someone who has ink in his pen to do it in large hands, illegally”.

“I think it would be stupid. If they go for an aggression against the democratic rule of law with Jair Bolsonaro as a victim, they will create a great martyr, victimize a good person, who spent four years without allegations of corruption. At the [governo] Lula, there are already three ministries that are the target of criminal problems”, he shoots.

Defending the Father’s Legacy

Also during the interview, Flávio Bolsonaro said that he will work beyond the Senate to defend his father’s legacy, like any proposal that may question the independence of the Central Bank, approved during the former president’s government. For him, Lula’s criticism of the monetary authority is an “excuse for the failure that is obviously going to come.”

“He wants to find a scapegoat. He only thinks about Bolsonaro all day long. And people are waiting for the picanha until now. By attacking Campos Neto, he is attacking Bolsonaro,” he said.

Another point of work in the “defense of the legacy” will be in the appreciation of the former president’s vetoes in Congress, which he says will be a “firm, tough, forceful” opposition, but which will know how to negotiate “when a certain subject is beneficial to the population ”.

A beneficial subject that Flávio says he will analyze with the opposition is the tax reform through Proposals for Amendment to the Constitution 45 and 110, which need “adjustments” and which did not go ahead “due to lack of convergence”.

“President Bolsonaro began this process of reducing bureaucracy, simplifying, reducing taxes and increasing revenue. This is where government digitalization comes in, we are the 2nd most digital country in the world”, he says.

Other topics in defense of the legacy that Flávio intends to work on are projects in the areas of economics, customs and public safety.