Flavio Bolsonaro campaign opens with Milei and Netanyahu support
Flavio Bolsonaro launched his presidential bid against Lula with foreign right-wing backing but limited attendance from Brazil’s centre right.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
The Flavio Bolsonaro campaign formally opened in Sao Paulo on Saturday, setting up Brazil’s right-wing challenger against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. AFP, AP and Reuters reported that Bolsonaro used the Liberal Party convention to showcase support from Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, has long been treated as the likely standard-bearer for Brazil’s political right, according to the news agencies. Recent polling cited by the agencies shows him behind Lula, whose Workers Party is expected to confirm the 80-year-old president’s re-election campaign at its convention on August 2.
Who is backing Flavio Bolsonaro?
Milei attended the launch and used his remarks to attack Lula, AFP, AP and Reuters reported. The Argentine leader said Bolsonaro could “save” Brazil from socialism and told the audience, “We will continue offering our testimony everywhere against the lies of socialism.”
According to the agencies, Milei arrived in Brazil the night before the event and met Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas on Saturday. A photograph from the event showed Milei holding a national football jersey beside Bolsonaro, who held a Brazilian flag.
Netanyahu backed Bolsonaro in a short recorded message, according to Brazilian outlet Metropoles. “Flavio, my friend, I want to congratulate you on the official launching of your campaign,” Netanyahu said, according to the outlet. “You’re a great champion of Brazil, you’re a great champion of the friendship between our peoples.”
Bolsonaro told supporters that the gathering marked the start of a hard contest. “This is more than a party convention,” he said, according to AFP, AP and Reuters. “This is the beginning of the toughest battles of our life. A fight between good and evil.”
Why was Jair Bolsonaro not there?
Jair Bolsonaro appeared only through an AI-generated video, AFP, AP and Reuters reported. The former president is serving a 27-year prison sentence for a coup attempt after his 2022 election loss to Lula, according to the agencies.
The convention also underscored a domestic political problem for Flavio Bolsonaro. AFP, AP and Reuters reported that few leading Brazilian politicians attended, while centre-right parties have largely kept their distance from his campaign.
Bolsonaro and his allies have faced criticism over their use of ties to the administration of US President Donald Trump, according to the agencies. Many Brazilians view appeals for US involvement in Brazil-related disputes as foreign meddling, the agencies reported.
AFP reported Saturday that Brazil denied visas to two Trump administration officials who wanted to meet the country’s election authorities. The officials sought talks about “freedom of expression related to the elections,” AFP reported.
What are the election concerns?
AFP, AP and Reuters reported that Flavio Bolsonaro, like his father, has repeated false claims about the reliability of Brazil’s election system. The agencies reported that those claims have raised alarm because they are seen as a possible basis for rejecting the legitimacy of a loss to Lula.
Brazil’s presidential race is therefore opening with both a familiar rivalry and a sharper international dimension. According to AFP, AP and Reuters, Bolsonaro is trying to rally the right with support from foreign conservative leaders while facing weak polling, legal and political fallout around his father, and resistance from parts of Brazil’s centre right.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.