Brazil’s Bolsonaro says he will decide in March 2022 whether to seek reelection

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday (27) that he would decide in March of next year whether to run for a second term.

Still without a political party affiliation, the president needs to become affiliated at least six months before the election, scheduled for October, in order to be eligible to run for reelection.

“I will decide in March whether I will be a candidate for reelection,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday night in an interview with Boas Novas TV.

Elected in 2018 as a member of PSL, the president left the party in 2019 after a dispute with its president, Congressman Luciano Bivar.

On Monday, the president of the Liberal Party (PL), Valdemar Costa Neto, released a video in which he reiterated the invitation to Bolsonaro to join the party. Costa Neto was convicted by the Supreme Court (STF) in the mensalão case and was arrested for his involvement in the scheme in December 2013. In 2016 he received a pardon of his sentence and was released, benefiting from the presidential pardon published in 2015.

Bolsonaro last year announced the creation of a new party, the Alliance for Brazil. Still, the process did not move forward and did not even come close to the minimum number of signatures required by the Electoral Justice System to create it.

The president also flirted with Patriota, another small party which his son Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (RJ) has joined. Still, internal disputes and resistance prevented the negotiations from moving forward.

Another alternative is the Progressive Party (PP), the party of the Chief of Staff, Ciro Nogueira, and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira. The possibility has gained strength, even though a considerable part of the party is against it.

In addition to PL and PP, another possible path for Bolsonaro is the PTB of Roberto Jefferson. Jefferson has been in prison since August 13 by order of the Supreme Court (STF), accused of carrying out internet attacks on democratic institutions as part of the so-called digital militias. PTB formalized its invitation to Bolsonaro to join earlier this month.