Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, has vowed to “re-democratise” the South American country, increasing fears about a move into authoritarian rule if he wins power.
Brazil was re-democratised in the 1980s after a brutal 21-year dictatorship that Flávio’s father, the disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, has long praised.
Last year, Jair Bolsonaro, a former soldier who served under that military regime, was jailed for 27 years for trying to engineer a coup after he lost the 2022 election to the current leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Flávio, 45, beat Lula, 80, in Sunday’s presidential election first round and goes into the runoff on 25 October as favourite. On Tuesday, the rightwinger vowed to capitalise on the hugely increased far-right presence in congress after the election to change the constitution and “re-democratise this country”.
“The only thing standing in the way of Brazil becoming a barbarity is called Flávio Bolsonaro as president,” he claimed at a campaign event in Goiânia, a city near the capital, Brasília.
The incendiary comments caused outrage among historians and opponents of Bolsonaro’s radical populist movement, who have accused him of co-opting the language of democracy to disguise an illiberal shift. » | Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro | Wednesday, October 7, 2026