BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Former President Jair Bolsonaro returned to Brazil on Thursday after a three-month stay in Florida, seeking a new role on the political scene as authorities in the capital prepared for the return of the populist from extreme right.
Hundreds of supporters dressed in yellow and green chanted for him as they waited in the capital city of Brasilia, where the far-right leader is the subject of several investigations. The Federal District Security Secretariat mobilized hundreds of police officers and the Ministries Esplanade was closed to avoid crowds.
Bolsonaro left Brazil just before the end of his presidential term. In doing so, he broke with tradition by refusing to hand over the presidential sash to his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the closest October election since Brazil’s return to democracy more than three decades ago.
While in the US, Bolsonaro mainly kept a low profile, though he made several speeches to Brazilian expatriates and conservatives, including at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
For the first time in 30 years, the lawmaker-turned-president is not holding elective office.
“I am without a mandate, but I am not retired,” Bolsonaro told the Jovenm Pan television network on Monday.
Before boarding a flight to Brazil at Orlando International Airport, he told CNN Brazil that he did not plan to lead the political opposition to Lula, a claim not believed by his allies.
Hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters gathered at the Brasilia International Airport early Thursday. They sang against Lula and repeated the slogan of a protest that triggered the Brazilian dictatorship of 1964-1985: God, family and freedom.
However, they were unable to see the far-right leader leave through the main exit and instead braved morning traffic to gather outside his Liberal Party headquarters to show their enthusiasm.
“Bolsonaro was the best president we have ever had, I have never seen an administration like his,” said Marinalva Wanderley, 71, who brought five members of her family from Sao Paulo to the Liberal Party headquarters. “I think he was in the US with Donald Trump to see what is best for Brazil and the US. We will have much greater opposition (to Lula), that’s for sure.
Bolsonaro was expected to speak to lawmakers in a private meeting later on Thursday. His party said in a statement that he was not expected to deliver a speech.
A horde of his followers. stormed and looted the most important government buildings in the capital on January 8a week after Lula’s inauguration, seeking to remove the new president from power.
Bolsonaro’s goal of regaining political prominence may be hampered by a series of investigations, including whether he incited the January 8 uprising. Recent revelations by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper regarding three boxes of expensive jewelry allegedly brought to Bolsonaro from Saudi Arabia have exposed the former president to increased legal risk.
His return to Brazil has been repeatedly delayed and some have speculated that he could postpone it indefinitely in light of his legal problems. Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally and considered a global far-right strategist, told Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo newspaper this week that Bolsonaro should never have left the country and dismissed the importance of the investigations.
Now that Bolsonaro has returned, his first goal will be to build opposition to Lula’s government, said Mayra Goulart da Silva, a political scientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
“Bolsonaro decided to return to Brazil because no clear opposition leader to the government has emerged,” da Silva said, adding that otherwise the vacuum could be filled by someone else.
Next year’s municipal elections are an important step in building political momentum for a possible 2026 presidential bid. Bolsonaro is expected to lend his support to his Liberal Party’s mayoral candidates who, if victorious, can use their stature to support him.
In addition to the diamond investigations, Bolsonaro is the subject of a dozen investigations by Brazil’s electoral courts into his actions during last year’s campaign, particularly in connection with his unsubstantiated claims that the electronic voting system is susceptible to fraud. If Bolsonaro is found guilty in any of those cases, he would lose his political rights and would be unable to run in the upcoming elections.