POLITICS
The Bolsonarista movement gets caught up in online feuding
Presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro and his brother Eduardo — who he intends to make foreign minister if elected in October. Photo: Social media
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro's rise in the polls — including some runoff forecasts putting him ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — has energized the Bolsonarista movement. But the far right is not without its fractures. Public feuds among prominent figures in the camp are already testing the senator's grip on the coalition his father built.
In recent days, former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro publicly targeted two prominent figures on the Brazilian right: Nikolas Ferreira, a lawmaker from Minas Gerais with a massive social media following, and his own stepmother, Michelle Bolsonaro, both of whom he accused of failing to show enough support for Flávio’s presidential bid.
👉 Why it matters. These feuds mostly play out online, but that is no reason to dismiss them. For the Brazilian far right, social media is not merely a communications tool; it is the primary organizational infrastructure, it is the arena where influence is established and loyalty is shown. What happens on X, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp carries real political weight.
The episode is symptomatic of…
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