By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Senator Flavio Bolsonaro said on Friday that his father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has signaled he will back a presidential run next year by his eldest son.
The senator wrote on X that his father had chosen him for “the mission of carrying on our project for the nation.”
The head of Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, told Reuters he had learned from the senator that the former president had “ratified his candidacy.”
News of Bolsonaro’s plans hit Brazilian markets on Friday, with the country’s currency slipping 2% against the U.S. dollar and the benchmark stock index Bovespa down 3%.
Some investors had bet on Bolsonaro backing a more market-friendly name with executive experience, such as Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, his former minister, to challenge leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
The former president’s decision, if confirmed, could “implode” ties between the right-wing movement he forged and more centrist political parties, said Andre Perfeito, an economist at Garantia Capital.
“The market was betting on Tarcisio to build those alliances and pave the way to victory on the right in 2026,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Now we need to evaluate whether Flavio Bolsonaro can reunite that broad political support.”
Former President Bolsonaro has been barred from running for office since June 2023, when Brazil’s federal electoral court (TSE) condemned his conduct during the 2022 election.
In September, the former president was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.
CNN Brasil first reported, citing unnamed sources, that the right-wing leader offered his support to his eldest son during a visit to the federal police offices in Brasilia where he is serving his sentence.
(Reporting by Lisandra ParaguassuAdditional reporting by Fernando Cardoso, Fabricio de Castro and Luciana Magalhaes in Sao PauloEditing by Brad Haynes and Diane Craft)
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