While his wife has returned to Brazil and there is speculation about his future presidential candidacy, the ex-president is still in the US, applying for a temporary visa and speculating about acquiring the nationality of his ancestors’ country.
Bolsonaro’s political life has remained unknown since he left Brazil on December 30, two days before the end of his term. The best kept secret of all his relatives is about when he will return to his country, where the prosecution and various investigations against him await him. Everything seems to indicate that it won’t be soon. Now the former president himself has expressed the possibility of applying for Italian nationality. A question that doesn’t seem that far-fetched, given that his great-grandfather was born in Anguillara, in northeastern Italy, and he emigrated to Brazil with his parents when he was 10 years old.
That his plans to hypothetically evade Brazilian justice could crystallize in the Mediterranean country was revealed in a recent interview with a transalpine medium, in which he stated: “My grandparents were from Padua. According to your law, I am Italian.” The State Department has indicated that it has not received a formal request from Bolsonaro, but his sons Flavio and Eduardo did in 2020, although it remains unresolved. The door for the far-right leader is open not closed: if he has ancestors, there are no generational boundaries to the process.
Bolsonaro already has an honorary nationality, which he received in 2021 when he visited the city of his ancestors. The title caused a deep controversy, as the majority of the population of Padua did not agree with this concession. However, the region’s government avoided the criticism by ensuring that it was not given solely on a personal basis, but in recognition of all Italians who left the country for Latin America. The mere hypothesis of the former Brazilian president joining Meloni’s Italy heightens the concern of his former Brazilian opponents and of Lula’s own government, which links him to the humanitarian drama suffered by the indigenous population during his tenure.
They want him back to Brazil anyway. For this reason, numerous congressmen from the country have asked the US government not to issue the tourist visa applied for by the former president, who is staying in Florida for six weeks and could extend his stay for another semester. They have also requested extradition from the US, although the possibility is slim. Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Felipe Alexandre, assures that “it is very difficult to expel someone who is in a legal situation, who respects immigration laws” and who is not formally charged with a crime. For now, the former right-wing leader lives his life as a normal visitor. Videos have been seen on social networks of him walking down the street or going to shops. A regular at fast food restaurants, he has become something of a “celebrity” among his hundreds of followers in Orlando, whether Brazilians or American far-rights.
As a tourist you will not be able to work, so the purpose of conducting events with business people will eventually be extinguished. The doubts about how he will cover the costs of his new life in Miami seem to have been resolved for the time being by a group of wealthy compatriots who would send him means for his living expenses. The law prohibits him from charging for attending receptions or other events, but he is allowed to attend the tributes bestowed on him by his followers. Last week, he took part in a rally in Miami where he assured that he will remain active in politics and that his intention is to return to Brazil’s presidency, although he has not explained how he will do so.
To remain present on the political scene, Bolsonaro does not need to be physically in Brazil. His modus operandi, as Deputy Erika Hilton has assured, would be to issue orders or send strategic messages to the Bolsonarists and their allied parliamentarians. In fact, his wife. Michelle has already returned to the country and has already worked for the Liberal Party (PL), the hometown of the former president.
The PL has begun to make public the figure of the former “first lady” and political scientists do not rule out that she will become the candidate representing her husband’s strategies and ideology in the 2026 presidential election. Expected support, the far-right leader has several state governors in his favor and a large number of supporters in Congress. Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of his three sons, leads the opposition and is surrounded by many like-minded people in a parliament, which was voted on in October last year, with a limited number of members from President Lula da Silva’s left.
Despite open inquiries, the former president has said he remains calm and blameless. So much so that the Bolsonaristas who attacked the Congress headquarters, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace in Brasilia were left to fend for themselves without their leader. Bolsonaro, as part of his defense strategy, has distanced himself and condemned his followers to “everyone must pay for what they have done”. “What happened is not from our side,” he said. It will be necessary to see if the peace remains in case the court disqualifies him from enforcing the policy.
Source: La Verdad
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