Bolsonaro's eldest son announces his intention to run against Lula in the 2026 elections

São Paulo.- Flávio Bolsonaro, senator and eldest son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, announced this Friday that he has his father's blessing to run in the 2026 Brazilian elections against the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Upon announcing his candidacy, Flávio stated that he will "fulfill the mission" of being a candidate in October 2026 to continue his father's "nation project," who has served 10 days of a 27-year prison sentence for a coup.

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"It is with great responsibility that I confirm the decision of the greatest political and moral leader of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, to give me the mission of continuing our nation's project," declared the former president's eldest son in a message on social media. In that message, Flávio spoke of public insecurity caused by "narco-terrorists" and the "plundering" of state-owned companies; and he criticized the high tax burden and the lack of expectations for young people. The senator and now pre-candidate received the support of the leadership of the Liberal Party (PL), the far-right formation led by his father and which has the largest bloc in the Legislature, and also from his siblings and his father's wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who in recent days has shown her own voice within the clan. The announcement clears up doubts on the more radical right wing in the run-up to the 2026 elections, in which Lula will once again be a candidate for a fourth term, leading the progressive forces. This way, the 2022 scenario could be repeated, the most polarized and contested elections in the recent history of the country, in which Brazilians voted in a second round between two candidates with the same last names, Lula and Bolsonaro.

Following those elections, in which Lula won by a small difference of 1.8 percentage points, Bolsonaro tried to convince the military leadership to embark on a coup, events for which he has just been sentenced to 27 years in prison, which he is serving in a cell at the Superintendence of the Federal Police, in Brasilia.

Surveys favor Lula

The polls published so far place Lula in a clear advantage over any possible right-wing candidate for the elections next October, but few of those polls considered Flávio as the possible standard-bearer of the right-wing forces. Among the bouquet of options, the name with the most strength was that of the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, a former minister in the Bolsonaro government who enjoys the support of the financial market and who, for the moment, had not clarified whether he intended to run for the presidential palace or for re-election at the head of the regional executive. For the time being, Freitas has not spoken publicly after the announcement of Flávio Bolsonaro's candidacy. The financial market, which feels more comfortable with a more economical profile like Freitas's, misdirected the news of Flávio Bolsonaro's candidacy. The São Paulo Stock Exchange, which had been stringing together consecutive records, plunged 4.31% and the dollar rebounded 2.31% against the Brazilian real. The candidacy was not received with unanimous support from the center and right-wing forces either. Conservative Ronaldo Caiado, governor of the state of Goiás and who launched his presidential candidacy months ago, announced that he will remain in the race. However, he did receive relevant support, that of Michelle Bolsonaro, former first lady, who had a public spat with the patriarch's children earlier this week due to differences regarding regional candidacies for the 2026 elections. From the left, the news was received as something "foreseeable", in the words of deputy Lindbergh Farias, leader of the Workers' Party (PT) in the lower house. "They know it's practically impossible to defeat Lula, but they want to maintain the opposition's prominence for the future," Farias said on social media.