Berliner Tageszeitung - Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro isolated, ridiculed after self-exile

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 in a confusing series of revised statements.

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.

- 'Lunatic asylum Napoleon' -

The letter was met with outrage in Brazilian media, which described its tone as "coup-mongering," while politicians from across the spectrum called for the election results to be respected.

A column in the O Globo daily likened Flavio Bolsonaro to a "lunatic asylum Napoleon," while the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper slammed the statement as "pathetic."

On the right, the powerful governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, quickly distanced himself.

De Freitas was a former minister under Jair Bolsonaro who had been tipped as the main candidate for the right before the former president chose his son

"We are democrats. The election result is sovereign. What we have seen is the will of the majority of the population, which must be respected," De Freitas said in an interview with the Estadao daily.

As speculation switched almost immediately to who would lead the right with Flavio out of the country, the governor -- a favorite in business circles -- said a 2030 run was "a possibility."

Rogerio Marinho, who co-ordinated Flavio Bolsonaro's campaign, said there was "no evidence" of electoral fraud, as claimed by the defeated candidate.

Electoral court chief Kassio Nunes Marques, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro, issued a statement to highlight the "secure electoral process."

- 'No one approves' -

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 AFP.

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.

On Thursday, PL leader Valdemar Costa Neto visited Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving his sentence under house arrest.

"No one approves" of the letter, Neto said as he left the meeting, adding that the party needed to "move forward."

M. Tschebyachkinchoy--BTZ