Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, has fled Brazil after the corrupt socialist incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was “reelected” to a fourth term by what the American Spectator calls “a stunningly irregular vote.”
Flávio’s father has been in prison since 2024 for supposedly plotting a coup against Lula.
And this October, after the results of the second round of the presidential election were announced, the Lula government tried to prevent the son from traveling by acting to confiscate his passports. But Flávio Bolsonaro saw the writing on the wall and got out before he could be arrested for having the temerity to run for president.
During the first round, Flávio Bolsonaro had edged out the incumbent with 47 percent of the vote to Lula’s 45. The discontent with the current administration, thereby revealed, threw Lula into panic mode.
During the runoff vote, at Lula’s request Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Cristiano Zanin, a Lula crony, issued “an unprecedented ruling extending the voting times for an additional two hours, leading to some voting stations closing at 7:00 p.m. rather than at 5:00 p.m. per the nation’s
Bolsonaro not unreasonably asserts that the 52-48 percent Lula-favoring result was tainted by “a complete breakdown of equality among Brazilians from different cities and states. I’ll never know how many votes I might have received in a state where the polls weren’t reopened. It’s inexplicable that what happened
Well, not quite inexplicable.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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One reply on “Escape from Brazil”
In the first round of voting, less than Less than 1½% went to a leftist other than Lula. The 10½% of the vote that went neither to Bolsonaro nor to Lula went overwhelmingly to candidates not on the left, and generally to the right. In the second round, those voters would either have voted for Bolsonaro or abstained. Before the second round, I noted publicly that Bolsonaro would surely win in an honest run-off, but that an honest run-off was not assured.
Brazil will not have an honest election before a violent revolution, but revolutions do not guarantee an establishment or restoration of democracy, liberal or otherwise.