Jair Bolsonaro

"Bolsonaro" redirects here. For the surname, see Bolsonaro (surname).

Jair Bolsonaro
President of Brazil Elect
Assuming office 1 January 2019
Vice President	Hamilton Mourão (elect)
Succeeding	Michel Temer
Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 1991
Councillor of Rio de Janeiro
In office 1 January 1989 – 1 February 1991
Personal details
Born	Jair Messias Bolsonaro (1955-03-21) 21 March 1955 Glicério, São Paulo, Brazil
Political party	PSL (2018–present)
Other political affiliations	PSC (2016–2018) PP (2005–2016) PFL (2005) PTB (2003–2005) PPB (1995–2003) PPR (1993–1995) PP (1993) PDC (1989–1993)
Spouses	Rogéria Nantes Braga (div.) Ana Cristina Valle (div.) Michelle Reinaldo ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	5, including Flávio, Carlos and Eduardo
Alma mater	Agulhas Negras Military Academy
Signature
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	Brazil
Branch/service	Brazilian Army
Years of service	1971–1988
Rank	Captain
Commands	8th Field Artillery Group 9th Parachute Artillery Group

Jair Messias Bolsonaro (Portuguese: [ʒaˈiʁ meˈsiɐs bowsoˈnaɾu]; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who is the President-elect of Brazil. He has served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Rio de Janeiro, since 1991. He is a member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL). He will assume office for his four-year term as president on 1 January 2019, succeeding Michel Temer.

Born in Glicério, São Paulo, Bolsonaro graduated from the Agulhas Negras Military Academy in 1977 and served in the Brazilian Army's field artillery and parachutist groups. He became known to the public in 1986, when he penned an article for Veja magazine criticizing low wages for military officials, after which he was arrested for fifteen days despite receiving letters of support from peers in the army; he was acquitted two years later.

Bolsonaro joined the reserve in 1988 with the rank of captain, and ran for the Rio de Janeiro City Council that year, being elected as a member of the Christian Democratic Party. In 1990 Bolsonaro was elected to the lower chamber of Congress, and was subsequently re-elected six times. During his 27-year tenure as a congressman, Bolsonaro became known for his strong support of national conservatism. He is a vocal opponent of left-wing policies, including same-sex marriage, abortion, affirmative action, drug liberalization, and secularism. In foreign policy, he has advocated closer relations to the United States and Israel. During the 2018 presidential campaign he started to advocate for economic liberal and pro-market policies. A polarizing and controversial politician, his views and comments, which have been described as far-right and conservative in nature, have drawn both praise and criticism in Brazil.

Bolsonaro announced his pre-candidacy for president in March 2016 as a member of the Social Christian Party. However, he left the party in 2018 and joined the Social Liberal Party, which launched his presidential campaign in August 2018 with retired general Hamilton Mourão as his running mate. He portrays himself as an outsider and a supporter for family values. Bolsonaro came in first place in the first round of the general election on 7 October 2018, with PT candidate Fernando Haddad coming in second place. The two candidates faced again on 28 October 2018, and Bolsonaro was elected with 55% of the popular vote.

Biography

Early life

Bolsonaro was born on 21 March 1955 in the town of Glicério, São Paulo, in the southeast region of Brazil, to Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro and Olinda Bonturi. Jair Bolsonaro is of mostly Italian with some German ancestry. On his father's side, he is the great-grandson of Italians from Veneto and Calabria. His paternal grandfather's family comes from Veneto, more precisely the city of Anguillara Veneta, in the province of Padua. His great-grandfather, Vittorio Bolzonaro (the surname was originally written with a Z), was born on April 12, 1878. Vittorio's parents emigrated to Brazil when he was ten, together with his litter sister Giovanna and his little brother Tranquillo. His German ancestry came from his father's maternal grandfather, Carl “Carlos” Hintze who was born in Hamburg around 1876 and immigrated to Brazil in 1883. His maternal grandparents were born in the Italian city of Lucca, Tuscany, and immigrated to Brazil in the 1890s.

Military career

In his final years in high school, Bolsonaro was admitted to the prep school of the Brazilian Army and then was sent to the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (Brazil's main military academy), graduating in 1977. He briefly served in the army's parachutist units. His superior officers described him as "ambitious and aggressive".

Bolsonaro in 1986

His first rise to publicity came in 1986 when he gave an interview to the news magazine Veja. He complained about low salaries in the military and claimed that the High Command was firing officers due to budgetary cuts and not because they were displaying 'deviations of conduct', as the command was telling the press. Despite being reprimanded by his superiors, Bolsonaro received praise from fellow officers and wives of military men, becoming a household name for a lot of hardliners and right-wingers who were growing disenchanted with Brazil's new civilian democratic government. Bolsonaro served in the military for seventeen years, reaching the rank of Captain.

Political career

Bolsonaro as Rio de Janeiro city councillor, 1990

In 1988, he entered politics by getting elected city councillor in Rio de Janeiro by the Christian Democratic Party. In the 1990 elections, he was elected a federal congressman from the same party. He served four consecutive terms. He has been affiliated with several other Brazilian political parties over the years. In 2014, he was the congressman who gained the most votes in Rio de Janeiro, with 464,000 votes.

In his 27 years of service in the Brazilian National Congress, he put forward at least 171 bills and one constitutional amendment, passing two of them into law. According to Bolsonaro, who claims to be persecuted by the left-wing parties, most congressmen do not vote according to their agenda, but "by who the author of the bill is".

In January 2018, Bolsonaro abandoned the Social Christian Party and switched to the Social Liberal Party (PSL). Following Bolsonaro's arrival, the PSL adopted conservative and right-wing positions, and its libertarian group Livres announced their departure from the party.

2018 presidential campaign

Main article: Jair Bolsonaro presidential campaign, 2018

On 22 July 2018, Bolsonaro was officially nominated by the Social Liberal Party (PSL) as its presidential candidate for the 2018 election. Bolsonaro was also endorsed by the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party. His coalition name was "God above all" (Deus acima de todos). Though contested by two lawsuits, the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil deferred them and his candidacy was made official on 6 August. Bolsonaro announced in August that Antônio Hamilton Mourão, a retired army general, would be his running mate for the upcoming election.

Bolsonaro supporters in London, 7 October 2018

According to political pundits, early in the campaign, Bolsonaro moderated his tone, taking a less aggressive and confrontational style. Economically, he started to support the idea of less government intervention in the economy (in contrast to what he has stated in the past, when he defended developmentalists policies). On the other hand, he maintained his tough stance on crime and his defense of "traditional family values". Bolsonaro also said he plans to cut taxes across the board, particularly on inheritances and businesses, in order to generate growth and tackle unemployment. He also promised more austerity measures and cuts in government spending, but was skewed on naming the areas where he would do those cuts. He also mentioned he would work to diminish the size and bureaucracy of the federal government by throwing a wild variety of deregulation measures. Bolsonaro's promises to restore security amid record high crime and to stamp out the country's rampant political corruption won him huge popular support. In October, Bolsonaro announced he would name liberal economist Paulo Guedes to serve as his Finance minister.

On 9 August 2018, he attended the first presidential debate of the year, organized by the TV network Rede Bandeirantes. A week later, there was another debate at RedeTV!. On 28 August, he gave an interview to Jornal Nacional, Brazil's best rated primetime news program, at Rede Globo.

Bolsonaro on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies, February 2014

Jair Bolsonaro was the first candidate for the presidency that was able to raise over R$1 million in donations from the public during the 2018 campaign. In the first 59 days, he amassed an average of R$17,000 per day in donations.

After the Workers' Party candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was arrested in April 2018, Bolsonaro became the front-runner, according to all major opinion polls, for that year's presidential election. A Datafolha poll from September, for instance, showed Bolsonaro as the leading candidate in the first round with 28% of vote intentions; however, run-off scenarios show Bolsonaro losing to opponents Geraldo Alckmin, Fernando Haddad and Ciro Gomes and tying with Marina Silva. A more recent poll from Datafolha, conducted in the week leading up to election day, shows a considerable surge for Bolsonaro, who has 40% of vote intentions, or 36% when null or blank vote intentions are included. Fernando Haddad came in second with 25%, and Ciro Gomes in third with 15%.

The first round of the election occurred on 7 October 2018, with Bolsonaro finishing it in first place with 46% of the popular vote (or 49.2 million people). Since he failed to win overall 50% of valid votes needed to win outright, he faced the second most voted, Fernando Haddad from the Workers' Party, in the second round that was held on 28 October 2018.

On the second round, Bolsonaro end up winning the election, with 55.13% of the votes, being elected the 38th president of Brazil. He will take office on 1 January 2019.

Attack during campaign event

The moment Bolsonaro was attacked at the Juiz de Fora rally

Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach on 6 September 2018 while campaigning and interacting with supporters in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. At first, his son Flávio Bolsonaro stated that his father's wounds were only superficial and he was recovering in the hospital. But Flávio later stated that the wounds seemed worse than initially thought and his father most likely would not be able to start campaigning personally before the end of the first round. He tweeted about his father's condition, explaining that the perforation reached parts of the liver, lung, and intestine. He also stated that Bolsonaro had lost a large amount of blood, arriving at the hospital with severe hypotension (his blood pressure was 10/3, equivalent to 100/30 mmHg), but that he had since stabilized. The attack was condemned by most of the other candidates in the presidential race, from both sides of the political spectrum, and by current Brazilian president Michel Temer. The day after the attack, Bolsonaro was transferred to the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital, in São Paulo, after a request from his family. According to the doctors, he was in an "extremely stable" condition.

Police arrested and identified the attacker as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, who, according to security agents, claimed he was on "a mission from God". He had been a member of the Socialism and Liberty Party between 2007 and 2014. His social media posts included political criticisms against both Bolsonaro and Temer.

On 29 September, a month after the attack, Bolsonaro was released from the hospital and returned to his home in Rio de Janeiro. Still, his condition prevented him from returning to the campaign trail for the remainder of the first round of the presidential election. In the same weekend he left the hospital, thousands of people took the streets in dozens of cities in Brazil to protest against Bolsonaro and his political stances, chanting “Ele não” ("Not him!"). There were also rallies in support of the candidate in sixteen states.

Political views

Bolsonaro in 2010

Bolsonaro's political views have been described as nationalist and populist in nature, and he is an advocate of far-right policies. His supporters, however, claim that his views are more aligned with traditional right-wing conservatism. His electorate is mainly formed by young people (usually between 16 and 24), the working middle to upper class (mainly in the southeast region of the country), conservatives in general, college graduates, some centrists and the Christian right. According to some polls, Bolsonaro's main support comes from the southeast, central-west, and south regions of Brazil. His voters are usually male and white, with a noticeable gender gap, with Bolsonaro polling poorly among female voters (mustering only 18% support with this demographic). Just before the 2018 election, however, it was reported that female support for him had risen to 27%.

Bolsonaro is viewed as a pro-life, anti-establishment and pro-gun politician, voicing opposition to most forms of gun control legislations, arguing that law abiding citizens have the right to defend themselves (especially those living in rural areas). Bolsonaro often rejects accusations made against him of misogyny and homophobia, and claims he is not a "far-right" politician, but simply a right-wing one.

Jair Bolsonaro is known for his strong opposition to left-wing policies. Most notably, he has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, environmental regulations, abortion, affirmative action (particularly racial quotas), immigration (particularly from Haiti, Africa and the Middle East, which he once called "the scum of humanity"), drug liberalization, land reforms, and secularism at the state level, among other things. He has also made statements in defense of the Brazilian military regime (a dictatorship known for constant human rights violations). He claims that torture is a "legitimate practice" and says that he would try to pass new legislation regarding the introduction of life imprisonment to the Brazilian penal code. Bolsonaro supports the privatization of state-owned companies and advocates free market policies, although critics have stated that his policy-making record does not in fact show him to be a supporter of economic liberalism.

Bolsonaro in 2009

In a 2017 interview with journalist Claudio Dantas Sequeira from O Antagonista, Bolsonaro said that his views are directly aligned with centrist to right-wing United States citizens' views on gun ownership, abortion, gender politics and trade, despite the "left-leaning media frenzy" against him. He reiterated that he intends to reverse some disarmament laws, improve public security, and also improve trade ties with the United States, which he said were broken during Lula da Silva's and Dilma Rousseff's administrations.

Bolsonaro has, during his long political career, expressed views that many regard as being far-right. He has made statements that some people considered insulting, homophobic, violence-inciting, misogynistic, sexist, racist or anti-refugee. Other controversial political stances expressed by Bolsonaro have been the defense of the death penalty (which is currently banned under the Constitution of Brazil of 1988) and of radical interventionism in Brazil by the military, along with an imposition of a Brazilian military government.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald called Bolsonaro "the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world". News.com.au wondered whether Bolsonaro was "the world’s most repulsive politician". British news magazine The Economist referred to him as a "radical", "religious nationalist", a "right-wing demagogue", and "apologist of dictators".

Views on the Brazilian military dictatorship

Bolsonaro was one of the key political figures in support of the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and the 2015–16 protests against corruption, galvanizing a lot of support for his cause among the populace

Throughout his political career, Bolsonaro has made a number of admiring comments about the Brazilian military dictatorship which ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. He said in 1993, eight years after the return of democracy, that the military regime had "led to a more sustainable and prosperous Brazil". Bolsonaro has publicly referred to the military dictatorship as a "glorious" period in Brazil's history, and that the under the military dictatorship, Brazil enjoyed "20 years of order and progress". In December 2008, Bolsonaro said that "the error of the dictatorship was that it tortured, but did not kill".

Bolsonaro has also repeatedly made admiring comments about a number of other Latin American dictatorships. He praised Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori as a role model for his use of military intervention against the judiciary and legislature. In a 1998 interview with Veja magazine, Bolsonaro praised the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and said the Pinochet regime, which killed over 3,000 Chilean citizens, "should have killed more people".

A demonstration against Bolsonaro in Porto Alegre, September 2018

Speaking before his vote in favor of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment amid the massive corruption scandal, Bolsonaro paid homage to Colonel Brilhante Ustra, an agent of Brazil's military dictatorship, and announced on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies that he was dedicating his pro-impeachment vote to Ustra's memory. Ustra had headed the DOI-CODI torture unit where Rousseff was allegedly tortured during the military dictatorship. Left-wing deputy Jean Wyllys spat at him after his own statement during the same session. The congressman claimed to have suffered homophobic offenses from Jair Bolsonaro and his allies.

In a TV interview with Câmera Aberta in the 1990s, Bolsonaro said that if he ever became President, he would use this as an opportunity to shut down the National Congress and instigate a military coup himself:

I have no doubts – I would begin the coup on the very first day! And I am sure that at least 90% of the people would commemorate or give me an ovation. The Congress today is good for nothing, they only vote in favor of the president's projects. If he is the person who makes the decisions, who calls the shots, who laughs at the Congress, then start the coup at once, and let's make this a dictatorship.

Foreign policy

During the 2018 presidential campaign, Bolsonaro said he would make considerable changes to Brazil's foreign relations, saying that the "Itamaraty needs to be in service of the values that were always associated with the Brazilian people." He also said that the country should stop "praising dictators" and attacking democracies, such as the United States, Israel and Italy. In early 2018, he affirmed that his "trip to the five democratic countries the United States, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan showed who we will be and we would like to join good people." Bolsonaro has shown distrust towards China throughout the presidential campaign claiming they "[want to] buy Brazil." Bolsonaro said he wishes to continue to have business with the Chinese but he also said that Brazil should "make better [economic] deals" with other countries, with no "ideological agenda" behind it.

Bolsonaro has also praised U.S. President Donald Trump and his foreign policy. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo has indicated that Brazil should sever ties with Iran and Nicolás Maduro's government in Venezuela and relocate Brazil's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Bolsonaro is widely considered to be the most pro-American candidate in Brazil since the 1980s. PSL members have said that if elected, he will dramatically improve relations between the United States and Brazil. During an October 2017 campaign rally in Miami, he saluted the American flag and led chants of “USA! USA!" to a large crowd.

At the regional level, he praised the Argentine president Mauricio Macri for ending the 12-years rule of Néstor and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, which he saw as similar to Lula and Dilma. Although he does not have plans of leaving the Mercosur, he criticized that it gave priority to ideological issues instead of economic ones.

Christianity and secularism

Bolsonaro is a member of the Catholic Church. He is reported to have attended a Baptist church for 10 years. In a 2017 speech, Bolsonaro stated, "God above everything. There is no such thing as this secular state. The state is Christian and the minority will have to change, if they can."

Views on women

In an interview with Zero Hora in 2015, Bolsonaro argued that men and women should not receive the same salaries, because women get pregnant; adding that he believes federal law mandating paid maternity leave harms work productivity. Bolsonaro has denied saying that women should receive less than men; he claims it was statistical data by IBGE.

In a public speech in April 2017, Bolsonaro said that he had five children, that the first four were male and that for the fifth he produced a daughter out of "a moment of weakness".

Bolsonaro arguing with Federal Deputy Maria do Rosário in the Chamber of Deputies, 14 September 2016

Bolsonaro provoked controversy for a series of remarks made to and about Federal Deputy and former Human Rights Minister Maria do Rosário. During a Congressional debate, Bolsonaro said that minors should be treated as adults if they commit heinous crimes such as murder or rape, to which Maria do Rosário responded by calling him a "rapist". Bolsonaro then stated that Congresswoman do Rosário was "not worth raping; she is very ugly". The remarks drew considerable condemnation throughout Brazil. In the aftermath of these remarks, Bolsonaro was tried and convicted in a Federal court in September 2015 on counts of hedonic damages against Rosário. In June 2016, the Federal Supreme Court responded to a complaint filed by the Attorney General and decided to open two criminal actions against Bolsonaro. The Supreme Court ruled that he had potentially incited rape and defamed the honor of his fellow Deputy. He faced a penalty of 3 to 6 months of imprisonment and a fine. Ultimately in August 2017, an appellate court upheld a lower court's verdict which found Bolsonaro guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine to Rosário of R$10,000 (roughly equivalent to US$2,500).

Views on homosexuality

The LGBT-related magazine The Advocate has called Bolsonaro "Brazil's biggest homophobe".

In a June 2011 interview with Playboy, Bolsonaro said that "I would be incapable of loving a gay son," and added that he would prefer any gay son of his "to die in an accident..." In the same interview, Bolsonaro went on to say that if a gay couple moved in next door to him, it would lower the market value of his house. In a July 2011 interview with the magazine Época, Bolsonaro said that he would "fight to prevent the distribution of the 'gay kit' [a set of guidelines proposed by UNESCO to promote the rights of the LGBT community in primary schools] because "their intention is to promote homosexuality, which is an affront to the family structure, and if that makes me prejudiced, then I'm prejudiced and very proud of it." In the 2013 BBC documentary Out There, by British actor Stephen Fry, Bolsonaro said that "no father is ever proud of having a gay son," and that "we Brazilians do not like homosexuals."

In a 2011 interview with Jornal de Notícias, Bolsonaro linked homosexuality to pedophilia, claiming that "many of the children who are adopted by gay couples will be abused by these couples." He further argued that Brazil does not need legislation specifically targeting homophobia, because "most homosexuals are murdered by their respective pimps at hours when good citizens are already asleep." In a May 2002 interview with the Folha de S.Paulo, Bolsonaro told the newspaper, "If I see two men kissing in the street, I will beat them." He then publicly defended beating gay children by saying: "If your child starts to become like that, a little gay, you take a whip and you change their behavior."

Bolsonaro and his son, Eduardo, together with fellow congressman Marco Feliciano, watching as a couple of protestors for LGBT rights kiss on the floor of the Committee on Culture of the Chamber of Deputies, May 2016

In a video interview for Vice with openly lesbian actress Ellen Page, Page asked Bolsonaro if he thinks she should have been beaten as a child, in response to his public statements that gay children should be beaten. In response, Bolsonaro said to Page, "You are very nice. If I were a cadet in the military academy and saw you on the street, I would whistle at you. All right? You are very pretty.” Bolsonaro added, "Over time, due to liberal habits, drugs, with women also working, the number of homosexuals has really increased."

On 9 November 2017, the Court of Justice for the State of Rio de Janeiro sentenced Bolsonaro to pay a fine of R$150,000 for hate speech because of televised comments he made in 2011 to the CQC TV program, when Bolsonaro stated that "there is no risk" of his family producing a homosexual child because his children had a "good education". Judge Luciana Teixeira said that the deputy had abused his right of free expression to commit a wrongful act. "You can not deliberately attack and humiliate, ignoring the principles of equality, just because you invoke freedom of expression," said the judge.

Birth control for the poor

Bolsonaro provoked considerable controversy for public remarks made in July 2008, when he proposed to provide poor people with birth control methods, who he suggested might be too uneducated to understand family planning education. Bolsonaro said:

I wish Brazil had a family planning program. It’s not even worthy to talk about education when most of these [poor] people are not prepared to receive education, therefore won’t educate themselves. Only a rigid birth control can save us from chaos. An educated man and woman will hardly desire an extra child with the sole purpose of engaging in a social welfare assistance program [as it is nowadays]. We need to adopt a rigid birth control policy. We can’t make demagogic speeches any longer, proposing bills and means of government to support these poor people that are increasingly proliferating throughout the country. [...] People who aren’t prepared to have children, shouldn’t have them. This is what I stand for and I’m not worried about getting votes in the future. It’s past time to discuss about a policy to contain this demographic explosion, otherwise we’ll keep voting in this Chamber only matters such as Bolsa Família, loans for the poor, gas vouchers etc. Methods [of birth control] have to be provided for those who, unfortunately, are ignorant and have no means to control their offspring. Because we [as upper middle class] are able to control ours. Poor people don’t control [theirs].

Personal life

Bolsonaro is married to his third wife and has five children. His first wife was Rogéria Bolsonaro (with whom he has three sons: Flávio, Carlos and Eduardo). His second marriage was with Ana Cristina (with whom he has one son, Renan). His third and current wife is Michelle de Paula Firmo Reinaldo Bolsonaro, with whom he has his only daughter, Laura. While working in Congress, Jair Bolsonaro hired his wife as a secretary and over the next two years she received unusual promotions and her salary more than tripled. He had to fire her after the Supreme Federal Court ruled that nepotism is illegal in the public administration. As of 2016, Bolsonaro and his wife lived in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro.

Electoral performance

Presidential

Election	Candidate	First round				Second round
		Votes	%	Position	Result	Votes	%	Position	Result
2018	Jair Bolsonaro	49,276,990	46.0	#1	Run-off	57,797,847	55.13	#1	Elected
Source:

External links

• Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter
• Jair Messias Bolsonaro on Facebook
• Jair Bolsonaro on Youtube
• "O Mito de Bolsonaro" [The Myth of Bolsonaro]. Vice Media (in Portuguese). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)