Former President Jair Bolsonaro always called his son, whom he had in 1981, “Number 1.” It was a title based on the military tradition of calling children by number according to their birth order. Zaire, a born soldier, chose a successor in the middle of this year while he was in prison on charges of coup d'état. It was not his wife, Michelle, who was popular in the right-wing camp, nor his charismatic sons who looked more like him. Among the four sons, Flavio was considered the least charismatic, but he was the eldest.
Flavio Bolsonaro, who advanced to the runoff election by placing first in the first round of the Brazilian presidential election on the 4th (local time), is the eldest son of the Bolsonaro family, a prestigious Brazilian political family. He will face a fierce battle with his father's archenemy, President Lula, the leader of the Brazilian left, in the runoff election on the 25th.
Carrying the halo of his family, he entered politics by being elected as a member of the Rio de Janeiro state assembly at the age of 21 while still a law student. He continued his political career in the state legislature for 16 years. In 2018, when the popularity of his father, Jair Bolsonaro (presidential term: 2019-2023), soared, he was elected as a senator and emerged as a national politician. He swept more than 4.3 million votes and wore the badge of senator with the highest number of votes in Rio de Janeiro state election history.
However, as the saying goes, there is nothing to eat at a famous banquet, and the results did not live up to expectations. During his seven years as a senator, he proposed 62 bills, but none of them were officially enacted into law. Despite working in politics for more than half of his life, he was unable to achieve any notable legislative achievements, and the evaluation of him as 'leaning in his father's shadow' followed him around like a label.
For this reason, they were not ahead in the succession structure from the beginning. Stepmother Michel emerged as a promising figure on the right with her excellent political sense and high public support, while her younger brother Eduardo attracted attention thanks to his strong personality that closely resembled his father. In particular, Eduardo was active in the national Congress (House of Representatives) before his older brother, and was ahead of Flavio early on. However, Eduardo was found guilty by the Supreme Court for attempting to intervene in his father's attempted coup trial and went into exile in the United States, while Michel, due to her limitations as a woman, ended up choosing Flavio as his successor. Zaire is known to be a person with a clear preference for men, to the point where he joked when his daughter was born after seeing his four sons, saying, "I lost strength as I got older and had a daughter."
Flavio, who won the position of successor after fierce competition in the family,'s greatest weapons are softness and flexibility. Some say that unlike his hard-line father, he is flexible and has better negotiating power than his father.
Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, explained, "Flavio has a reputation as the most sophisticated and gentle person in the family. When Jair Bolsonaro was president, even foreign ambassadors approached him through Flavio."
However, the weakness of 'no verified reality' is still a huge mountain that he must overcome.
German weekly Stern pointed out that unlike U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Millay, right-wing leaders in the Americas, who started out as political 'outsiders' and defeated the establishment, Flavio is close to the "incarnation of the establishment." It is pointed out that “he was able to become a senator because he was the son of Zaire, and politically he had nothing to show for it other than his last name.” It is also a clear contrast with President Lula, a 'positional figure' who rose from the bottom as a factory worker to become president.
There are exactly three weeks left until the runoff election. Looking at various opinion polls, the race against Lula appears to be a close race. Flavio Bolsonaro is faced with the task of proving to voters his own unique vision and capabilities beyond his father's 'halo' during the remaining period.
