Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has endorsed his son Flavio Bolsonaro’s bid for the presidency in 2026, issuing the statement from the hospital where he underwent a scheduled hernia operation.
The operation, which lasted around three hours, was described by Bolsonaro’s medical team as routine and uneventful.
Doctors said the former president was awake and recovering in his room and is expected to remain in hospital for five to seven days.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorised Bolsonaro to leave prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, to undergo the surgery.
Police were ordered to remain outside his hospital room, where the use of mobile phones and computers was prohibited.
Explicit support for his son
In a letter read out by his son outside the hospital in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he had decided to nominate Flavio Bolsonaro as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2026.
"With the commitment of not allowing the popular will to be silenced, I make the decision to nominate Flavio Bolsonaro as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2026," the former president said.
Flavio Bolsonaro, a 44-year-old senator, has said he intends to consolidate his father’s conservative legacy in the election scheduled for October 4, when he plans to challenge leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The former president, now 70, has faced repeated health issues since surviving a stabbing attack during the 2018 election campaign and has undergone multiple abdominal surgeries since then.
Doctors said Bolsonaro could also undergo a separate procedure during his hospital stay to address recurring hiccups, depending on the outcome of further medical assessments expected next week.
Bolsonaro was detained in late November and began serving his sentence days later after authorities deemed him a flight risk following his conviction.
Flavio Bolsonaro confirmed earlier this month that his father supports his presidential bid, a development that unsettled financial markets, which had expected Bolsonaro to back a more established figure such as Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas.
The cancellation of a planned interview earlier this week, in which Bolsonaro was expected to formally announce the endorsement, helped strengthen Brazil’s currency by nearly one percent against the US dollar.
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Source: TRT