Bolsonaro's son has overtaken Lula: The presidential race heats up in Brazil

Bolsonaro's son overtook Lula: the struggle for the presidency intensified in Brazil

According to the results, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro from the state of Rio de Janeiro outperformed the current head of state by 1.87 percentage points.

The voter turnout was 78.92 percent. Since no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, the presidential issue will be decided in a runoff vote.

This contest is also being viewed as an attempt by the Bolsonaro family to return to power. In the second round of the 2022 presidential election, Lula da Silva defeated Flavio's father — the then-president Jair Bolsonaro.

Jair Bolsonaro did not recognize the voting results at the time, and his supporters took to the streets in protest. Later, the former president was sentenced to a long prison term in a case involving an attempted coup d'état.

Another representative of the Bolsonaro family — Eduardo Bolsonaro — has also faced a court ruling. According to the source, the Supreme Court of Brazil sentenced him to four years and two months in prison in June 2026. This was based on his call for the US to impose sanctions against Brazil due to the sentence handed down to his father. The case against Eduardo, who lives in the US, was tried in absentia.

The 45-year-old Flavio Bolsonaro, who is running for the presidency, has put forward fighting crime as one of his main campaign promises. However, he himself was previously at the center of cases related to suspicions of corruption and embezzlement.

In particular, in 2019, cases were opened against the politician regarding receiving payments for ghost employees who were on the payroll but did not actually work, as well as suspicious money transfers to his bank account.

The publication noted that Flavio's name is also mentioned in the scandal surrounding Banco Master. The bank and its major shareholder, Daniel Vorcaro, are suspected of attracting tens of millions of dollars in investments from public and private funds through promises of unrealistically high returns. The investigation is examining circumstances related to a potential financial pyramid.

Vorcaro is also known as one of the producers of the biographical film "Black Horse" about Jair Bolsonaro. His correspondence with Flavio Bolsonaro was published in the media. According to the publication's interpretation, these exchanges raise questions about the politician's potential awareness of and assistance in the scheme. However, the presented information does not mean that Flavio's guilt in this case has been proven in court.