“To win the elections, we have to resolve these problems within the family”, said on Monday, March 30, Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party (PL), the formation whose main figure is former president Jair Bolsonaro, whose leader of the women’s wing is former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro and whose candidate for Planalto in the October elections is senator Flávio Bolsonaro. His brothers, deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro and councilors Carlos and Renan Bolsonaro, however, are also active in the campaign via social media.
In question, the increasingly public wars between Michelle and the four brothers. One of the most public occurred in December when Michelle criticized the party’s local leadership’s alliance with Ciro Gomes, presidential candidate in 1998, 2002, 2018 and 2022, who wants to run for governor of that state this year.
“Making an alliance with a man who is against the greatest leader of the right [referindo-se a Jair Bolsonaro] It’s not possible, we want to pacify, have unity and this person [Ciro Gomes] he never raises the white flag, he continues to say that the family are thieves, bandits, he compares Bolsonaro to a chicken thief, so there is no way to ally, there is no such thing,” said the former first lady of Brazil.
The speech upset André Fernandes, president of the PL in Ceará, who articulated this alliance with the endorsement of Jair Bolsonaro himself. “President Bolsonaro asked, in loud voice, that we call Ciro Gomes to say that we would support him”, complained Fernandes.
Flávio came to the defense of the Ceará leader. “Michelle ran over President Bolsonaro (…) and the way she addressed [a André Fernandes] It was authoritarian and embarrassing,” said in an interview with the newspaper Metropoliseswhere he explained that the objective in Ceará is to sign a pragmatic agreement with Ciro, since both have President Lula da Silva, with great strength in the region, as a common opponent.
“My brother is right”, added councilor Carlos Bolsonaro, “we have to be united around my father’s leadership and not let ourselves be led by other forces”, he wrote on the networks, a publication shared by his half-brother and also councilor Renan. “What was done was unfair and disrespectful towards André Fernandes”, said, in turn, deputy Eduardo.
Eduardo who, in February this year, attacked his stepmother and Nikolas Ferreira, the party’s star deputy. “Nikolas and Michelle are playing the same game. You see them side by side, one shares what the other posts and supports each other on social media. They have amnesia, perhaps, I don’t know for what reason […] I don’t want to generate more controversy, but I think everyone knows what’s going on.”
Afterwards, Nikolas said that Eduardo “is not doing well” and Michelle made a hint on the networks using her stepson’s nickname, “bananinha”.
As a backdrop, according to observers, the supposed preference of the former first lady (and Nikolas) for a presidential candidacy from the Bolsonarist right around Tarcísio de Freitas, well-rated governor of São Paulo, perhaps with her as a candidate for vicea solution that Jair Bolsonaro passed over, in favor of Flávio in a ticket still with number two to be defined.
And it is this lack of definition that is generating the last chapter of the family war that Valdemar referred to. The president of the PL wants Tereza Cristina, Bolsonaro’s moderate former Minister of Agriculture, as Flávio’s deputy to attract the influential agribusiness economic sector and reduce the female electorate’s aversion to Bolsonarism – according to a 2023 Poder360 survey, 58% of women (and only 47% of men) voted for candidate Lula in 2022.
The name does not displease Flávio. But Valdemar’s desire to have a woman, Tereza Cristina or another, as vice-president, yes. Because this would imply more influence from the leader of PL Mulher in the choice – and that leader is Michelle Bolsonaro. “The movement has already generated more discomfort in the Bolsonaro family,” said columnist Gabriel Sabóia on the magazine’s Ponto de Vista program. Look. “Whichever woman was chosen, they would need to have Michelle’s consent (…) and Valdemar’s haste causes friction.”
Tereza Cristina, however, said that, if invited, she will evaluate it. “Being vice is not my ultimate dream, I feel honored to be talked about but I can also be a candidate for president, why not? But that doesn’t just depend on my will”, said the 71-year-old senator, from Progressistas, another right-wing party.
At an event for the affiliation of five new deputies to the PL, Reinaldo Azambuja, the president of the party in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the same as the senator, said he “desires” to see her as Bolsonaro’s vice-president. “I look at Tereza Cristina and it makes me want to see you as Flávio Bolsonaro’s vice-president, I know you will be a warrior, you will talk about what you did as the best Minister of Agriculture in Brazil in the most difficult moments…”.
Nonetheless, Wings of Flávio’s candidacy dream of Romeu Zema as vice-president. The former governor of Minas Gerais, however, is, for now, an adamant candidate for president.
Leave a Reply