RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 17 — Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro said yesterday that he had not considered giving his father a government position in the event of victory, though he did not rule out the possibility.
Bolsonaro will face leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on October 25 in the country’s presidential election runoff.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio’s father, is currently under house arrest for planning a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.
“He has never suggested that he would like to work in the government... he has never raised the subject with me, so it’s not on the radar,” Flavio Bolsonaro said in an interview with TV Globo.
He did not close the door on the possibility of his father’s involvement in government should he win, though the 45-year-old ruled out appointing his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro as foreign minister.
Eduardo, 42, gave up his seat as a lawmaker in Brazil when he moved to the United States last year.
He was sentenced in absentia in June to four years and two months in prison after urging US sanctions on his country during his father’s coup trial.
During the interview, Flavio Bolsonaro described the incumbent government as “chaos” and insisted that the “Lula era is about to end.”
“There are only nine days left before the election, before we can turn this sad page of history,” the senator said.
Bolsonaro finished ahead of Lula by 47 per cent to 45 per cent in the first round of voting on October 4.
A Datafolha poll published on Thursday showed his lead in the runoff narrowing from four per centage points to two, putting the rivals in a statistical tie.
Bolsonaro was on 51 per cent of valid votes against Lula’s 49 per cent, within the survey’s two-point margin of error. — AFP
