Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro isolated, ridiculed after self-exile
The eldest son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro was blindsided by his election defeat.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — In a viral wave of mockery, Brazilian popstar Anitta declared herself free of cellulite, one influencer declared himself the “true president” of Twitter, and another social media user proclaimed himself the winner of the next lottery.
The target of the taunts was Flavio Bolsonaro, who — after fleeing to the United States following his election defeat — proclaimed himself the leader of Brazil on Wednesday.
The moves by the 45-year-old senator have been met in Brazil with a mixture of derision, disbelief, and disapproval, even from within his own camp.
The eldest son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro was blindsided by his election defeat to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, after leading a first-round vote earlier this month.
In a cloak-and-dagger operation he sneaked out of Brazil via Argentina and Ecuador, after being ordered to surrender his passports due to several ongoing investigations against him.
Hours after his arrival in Florida, he posted a statement on social media declaring himself the “true president” of Brazil, before revising the wording a few minutes later to describe himself as the “leader” of the country.
A Bolsonaro ally who published an earlier version of the statement bearing Brazil’s old coat of arms, abandoned in the sixties, said it had been a ChatGPT error.
No longer needed
Flavio Bolsonaro also said he would lead the opposition from abroad.
His self-proclamation as Brazil’s leader in exile “is not a misstep, it is a calculated move” intended to maintain his influence over the conservative camp in Brazil, said Geraldo Monteiro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
The stakes are high: despite their election defeat, the right scored a strong majority in Congress.
Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) will hold the largest number of seats from February.
“I do not believe he has the means to lead the opposition from afar, as the newly elected officials have already secured their seats and no longer need him,” Monteiro told Agence France-Presse.
He said Flavio Bolsonaro’s letter has “drawn a red line” between those who choose “extreme loyalty” and those who “prefer not to embark on another putschist adventure.”
Monteiro said Flavio was following in the footsteps of his father, who was sentenced to 27 years for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss to Lula.