Flávio Bolsonaro undercuts his own austerity platform

Since emerging as the far right's standard-bearer for 2026, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has sought to replicate his father's successful 2018 election playbook. That year, Jair Bolsonaro ran as a disruptive outsider, channeling voter frustration while pledging to hand economic policy to a market-friendly tsar with full autonomy.

Since December 2025, Flávio has aggressively pitched a Scissorhands approach to rising public debt figures. In a February event organized by BTG Pactual, the country’s biggest investment bank, he reaffirmed a sweeping spending cut agenda encompassing public sector downsizing, deregulation and a pledge to privatize 95% of state-owned companies.

However, like his father, Flávio has been vague in explaining how he will fulfill any of his promises. A senior campaign official recently told The Brazilian Report that the order is not to address any policy issue at this time.