Bolsonaro Barred From Leaving Brazil
Flávio Bolsonaro has been ordered to surrender his passports and barred from leaving Brazil, while his Liberal Party has recognised Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election victory, even though the senator has not formally conceded.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said the vote “looked like another rigged election,” without offering evidence.
Party leader Valdemar Costa Neto issued the statement on Monday, a day after Lula won by more than 4.4 million votes, taking 64.25 million to Bolsonaro’s 59.83 million. “We recognise the presidential election results,” he said. “But we believe the issues raised need to be properly clarified.” Bolsonaro had called the result “unacceptable” in his Sunday night speech and said: “We will take legal action. I will request that these elections be annulled.”
His position now looks unsettled. Folha de S Paulo reported that legal advisers and allies had persuaded him to abandon the annulment bid, citing the size of Lula’s margin and its validation by the Supreme Court and electoral authorities. In a video on Monday he said he would challenge Lula’s victory in court over alleged misuse of state resources and political power. Bolsonaro has not said publicly which course he will follow, and he has not commented since his party’s statement.
The passport order came the same day. Bolsonaro said federal police approached him on a street in Brasília after he visited his father, who is under house arrest, and told him he must hand over his passports under an order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The news portal G1, citing the ruling, reported that it cancels his passports, including the diplomatic one, requires him to surrender others within 24 hours, and bars him from contacting the lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is also under investigation. Reports tie the order to a money-laundering inquiry involving betting businesses and cite flight risk, which Bolsonaro denies. The order restricts his travel and communications but is not an arrest warrant or a conviction. The order is reportedly confidential, and the material provided includes no comment from the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro said he would hand over the documents, had no plans to leave and would organise the opposition. He called the order “a clear attempt to intimidate me” and blamed it on a remark by his brother Eduardo, a former lawmaker based in the United States, that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost. “I never said that,” he said. He is separately under investigation over the financing of a biopic about his father, and he denies wrongdoing.
The dispute that prompted his annulment call centres on a two-hour extension of voting, ordered by Justice Cristiano Zanin. Both campaigns had sought more time: Bolsonaro’s cited heavy rain in parts of southern Brazil, a right-wing stronghold, and Lula’s accused some cities of limiting public transport. Media reports said Pablo Souza, a transport official in Salvador, was arrested on Sunday over the matter. Bolsonaro noted that Zanin, whom Lula appointed in 2023, was previously the president’s personal lawyer, and said he had “changed the rules of the game mid-match.” Pedro Burgos, a professor at the institute Insper, found that the extension added about 35,000 votes nationwide, under 0.03 per cent of the total, far short of Lula’s margin.
Trump, who has clashed with Lula, told reporters on Monday: “I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election.” Vice President Geraldo Alckmin called his comments “totally wrong” and defended Brazil’s electoral system. Trump did not endorse Bolsonaro before the vote, although Reuters has reported that State Department officials led a campaign to return the Bolsonaros to power.
The episode revives memories of 2022, when Jair Bolsonaro refused to accept his own defeat to Lula. He is serving a 27-year sentence on coup-related charges and has been barred from office for eight years. Informed observers do not expect Flávio to be able to build the anti-democratic movement his father did. Lula will take office for a fourth term facing a Congress with many Bolsonaro allies.
