Jair Bolsonaro may be serving a lengthy prison sentence, but his family is expanding its grip on Brazil’s Congress and preparing to lead a conservative offensive against the Supreme Court that convicted him.
His wife Michelle and his son Carlos won seats in the Senate, while his younger son Jair Renan and his brother Renato were elected to the lower house. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party is set to nearly double its caucus in the upper house to 28 seats, the largest for any party at the start of a legislature since Brazil adopted its current Constitution in 1988 following military rule.
The conservative clan, which says it has been unfairly targeted by the court, would still need allies to reach the 54 votes — two-thirds of the chamber — required to impeach justices. That task could become considerably easier if Flávio Bolsonaro, Jair’s eldest son, wins the Oct. 25 runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“The great victory in Senate is really about people wanting to impeach Supreme Court Justices, it’s not necessarily something ideological,” said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst who served as former press secretary for leftist President Dilma Rousseff.
The Bolsonaros have long clashed with justices over investigations into the spread of fake news. The court has jailed several of the family’s allies and eventually sentenced Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn his 2022 election defeat to Lula. Barred from running for office himself, the right-wing former president refused to back candidates that didn’t share his last name.
His bet on building a family dynasty appears to have paid off. Flávio, a 45-year-old senator whom investors and political analysts had criticized as lacking his father’s charisma, surged to a surprise first-round lead over Lula on Sunday. If elected, he could appoint as many as four of the court’s 11 justices during his term.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, is facing heightened scrutiny after revelations that several justices had ties to Daniel Vorcaro, the jailed former owner of Banco Master SA, a defunct lender at the center of a major banking fraud investigation.
Federal police are also investigating Flávio Bolsonaro’s dealings with Vorcaro for possible crimes including corruption after the senator sought funding from the banker for a film about his father. Even so, voters appeared to embrace his push to strengthen conservatives’ hand against the Supreme Court.
In its surge, the Liberal Party captured both Senate seats in Rio de Janeiro, the family’s traditional political base .
In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and home to some of the highest-profile contests, conservatives defeated two close Lula allies — former ministers Simone Tebet and Marina Silva.
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The Senate results could also bring objectives long pursued by the right within reach if Flávio Bolsonaro wins Brazil’s top job.
Those goals include tougher sentencing, such as lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 16, as well as granting amnesty to rioters convicted of storming government buildings in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023, days after Lula’s inauguration.
The Liberal Party was also on track to become the largest caucus in the lower house, with 121 seats.