Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro says he will lead opposition to Lula government

Flavio Bolsonaro said on Monday he would lead the opposition to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government, one day after he refused to concede electoral defeat to the incumbent.

“To withstand the chaos, I’m going to organise the opposition,” the right-wing senator and son of ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro said.

Flavio received 48.2 per cent of the vote compared with 51.8 per cent for incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Also on Monday, Flavio said a Supreme Court justice had banned him from leaving Brazil.

“I was served with an order to hand over my passports and I am also banned from leaving the country,” he said in a video posted to Instagram.

Flavio denounced “a clear attempt to intimidate me”.

The senator is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering during the financing of a biopic about his father. He denies any wrongdoing.

The 45-year-old said the decision to seize his passport stems from a statement made by his brother, US-based former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, that Flavio would have to leave Brazil if he lost the election.

“I never said that,” the defeated candidate insisted in the Instagram video.

Flavio reiterated that he would seek to annul the election, arguing that an extension of voting hours on Sunday favoured Lula, despite having also requested the measure.

US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Brazil’s elections were “rigged” and “so corrupt”.

“It looked terrible to me,” Trump told reporters when asked about the Brazilian election as he left Washington for a campaign rally for next week’s US midterm elections.

“I didn’t take sides but it looked like another rigged election frankly … it was a terrible look for the world.”

Trump has himself disputed his own 2020 presidential election loss – calling it rigged – and has cast doubt on the US midterms on November 3, in which his Republican Party risks losing control of Congress.

An ally of the Bolsonaro family, Trump had clearly been hoping for a victory for Flavio, who had pledged to join a wave of conservative Latin American leaders cozying up to Washington.

“Elections have to be indisputable and it looked very bad to me,” Trump continued. “I didn’t endorse anybody or anything, but I watched the election and it looked so corrupt, so terrible.”

But Trump demurred when asked if he planned to take any action over the Brazilian result.

“I’m not running for Brazil, I’m running for the USA,” Trump said.

“I like Lula, I get along with him very well. I just thought it was a very bad look, the way it was tabulated – with the extension.”

Flavio cried foul after polling was extended for two hours, at Lula’s request, due to transport problems in some cities.

Despite his closeness to the Bolsonaros, Trump has also shown an uncanny fondness for Lula, saying that despite turbulent trade relations, he and the veteran leftist, both 80, have “excellent chemistry”.

Yet Trump has also repeatedly boasted about how his administration is changing the political map of Latin America – not least through the US military operation that toppled Veneuzela’s Nicolas Maduro in January.

“In South America, it was all leaning big left – it’s all right now,” Trump told reporters last week.

“And, as you know, I endorsed many of those people. Every single one that I endorsed won. In a short period of time, they are becoming extremely conservative in a very positive way.”