Flávio Bolsonaro officially registers as a candidate in Brazil's presidential elections

The main right-wing party in Brazil nominated Flavio Bolsonaro on Saturday to challenge left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the presidential elections scheduled for October, according to AFP journalists.

At a Liberal Party conference in São Paulo, the senator and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who was convicted of plotting a coup, said while patting his arm, “I can be calmer, more smiling, more serene and moderate, but Bolsonaro’s blood runs here!”

He argued that Brazil “could take significant steps toward dictatorship” if left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wins a fourth non-consecutive term.

With far-right Argentine President Javier Milei as a guest of honor, the Liberal Party, Brazil’s largest conservative party, held its conference in São Paulo before an audience of a thousand people to launch Senator Bolsonaro’s political campaign. The 45-year-old is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The electoral campaign is dominated by the presence of US President Donald Trump, an ally of the Bolsonaro family, who recently imposed two rounds of punitive tariffs on Brazil under the pretext of unfair trade practices.

In October, Javier Milei, one of the leading figures of the rising right in Latin America, warned in a high-profile speech of the “Lula threat,” stressing the need for Brazil to break free from its “subservience to the left.”