The senator won his party’s formal nomination to face President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as polls show a tighter race, while Jair Bolsonaro remained absent under house arrest.
Flavio Bolsonaro was formally nominated on Saturday as the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate, turning his campaign launch into an official challenge to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of October’s election. Speaking at the party convention in Sao Paulo, the senator said he would carry forward the political legacy of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, while presenting a platform centered on tax cuts, a stronger center-right bloc in Congress, tougher criminal penalties and stricter punishments for crimes including violence against women and child rape. The event again featured support from Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Jair Bolsonaro, under house arrest over his role in an attempt to overturn the 2022 election result, appeared only through an AI-generated video. Recent polling suggests the race has tightened after Flavio Bolsonaro narrowed an earlier gap, though a Datafolha survey still showed Lula ahead 48% to 43% in a potential runoff.