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2026 ELECTIONS

Jair Bolsonaro announced his successor. Conservatives shrugged, investors freaked out

Flávio Bolsonaro says he has a price. Photo: Joédson Alves/EBC

Former President Jair Bolsonaro — now serving a 27-year sentence for attempting to overturn the 2022 election — tapped his eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, as the standard-bearer of Bolsonarism in the 2026 presidential race. 

Flávio said the decision was made last Tuesday during a 30-minute visit to his father’s cell at Federal Police headquarters in Brasília, but he announced it only on Friday, telling reporters he had been chosen to “continue [his father’s] nation-building project.”

No major figures on the right endorsed the move. São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a favorite of financial markets…

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