Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro says role for father Jair is ‘not on the radar’ but doesn’t rule it out

Rio de Janeiro, October 17 — The right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro told TV Globo in an interview that he had not thought about giving his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, a government position if he were to win the upcoming election. However, he did not completely rule out the idea. This is the country's presidential election runoff, with Flavio facing the incumbent leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on October 25.

Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio's father, is presently under house arrest for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

According to Flavio, his father has never mentioned any desire to work in the government, and the subject has never come up between them. Thus, it's not something he's considering. However, he did not completely dismiss the possibility of his father's involvement in government if he were to win.

Flavio did, however, rule out his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is 42 years old, from serving as foreign minister. Eduardo is currently in the United States, having given up his seat as a lawmaker last year in Brazil. In June, he was sentenced in absentia to four years and two months in prison for urging US sanctions on his country during his father's coup trial.

In the interview, Flavio described the incumbent government as "chaos" and stated that the "Lula era is about to end." He added that there are only nine days left before the election, and it's the final opportunity to change history.

In the first round of voting on October 4, Bolsonaro secured 47% of the vote, while Lula received 45%. A Datafolha poll published on Thursday showed that Bolsonaro's lead in the runoff has narrowed from 4 percentage points to 2, making the rivals a statistical tie with a margin of error of two percentage points. As of the poll, Bolsonaro had 51% of valid votes, compared to Lula's 49%.