Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro has returned to Brazil, where he was greeted by hundreds of supporters at the capital Brasilia’s airport to welcome him back after three months in self-imposed exile.
Supporters with Brazilian flags draped around their shoulders sang the national anthem and chanted “legend” as Bolsonaro arrived from Florida in the United States on Thursday morning.
Bolsonaro, 68, who never conceded defeat in last year’s election, is expected to lead the opposition to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, officials in his Liberal Party said.
Before boarding a plane in Orlando, Florida, Bolsonaro downplayed his leadership role and said he will use his experience to help his party campaign in next year’s municipal elections, adding that the vote he lost in October is a closed chapter.
“We have turned a page and now we will prepare for next year’s elections,” he told CNN Brasil shortly before boarding.
But “I’m not going to lead any opposition,” he said.
“You don’t have to oppose this government. It creates the opposition by itself.”
The Federal District’s security secretariat mobilised hundreds of police officers and the Esplanade of Ministries was closed to prevent gatherings of Bolsonaro’s supporters. On January 8, Bolsonaro supporters stormed buildings in Brasilia, home to the three branches of government, in an effort to violently overturn the election.
Upon his return, Bolsonaro drove to the headquarters of his Liberal Party in Brasilia, where he met with supporters and members of the country’s conservative opposition.
“He’s come back because there is a popular outcry for his return to Brazil since he’s the only far-right leader in the country right now,” Guilherme Casaroes, a researcher with the Far Right Observatory, told Al Jazeera in a television interview.
“One of the things that Bolsonaro might have considered in his return to Brazil is that if he stayed away for too long, some other politicians could try to fill in the void of political leadership on the right wing.”
Casaroes said that doing so would be difficult given Bolsonaro’s stature on the Brazilian right, and that by returning home to voice opposition to the Lula government Bolsonaro would be “well positioned to run for the 2026 elections”.
While Bolsonaro enjoys support on the…