Presidential election in Brazil in 2022: Jair Bolsonaro before joining party

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Jair Bolsonaro

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The right-wing Brazilian Liberal Party (PL) could soon have a prominent new member.

The right-wing, currently non-party Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wants to join the party.

This was announced by the PL on Wednesday after a meeting between its chairman and the head of state.

Bolsonaro will sign the papers required for membership at a party event on November 22nd.

The background to this is the presidential election in Brazil next year.

According to Brazilian law, there are no non-party candidates for president.

"99.9 percent" certain

Bolsonaro had declared that he was "99.9 percent" sure that he wanted to become a PL member, but did not officially announce his decision.

The 66-year-old has belonged to eight different parties during his more than 30-year political career.

Bolsonaro won the 2018 presidential election as a member of the ultra-right Social Liberal Party (PSL), but left it in November 2019 after an internal power struggle.

He then tried to found his own party called the Alliance for Brazil, but failed to collect the necessary number of signatures or to meet other requirements.

Most recently, Bolsonaro joined the so-called »Centrão« coalition in parliament.

It belongs to a loose group of parties whose members are attested to be primarily interested in government posts.

The “Centrão” alliance is, however, considered to be extremely fragile.

In 2016, the then President Dilma Rousseff had already dropped it and thus made her impeachment possible.

More than 600,000 corona deaths

Bolsonaro wants to apply for a second term in the presidential election next year, but currently only enjoys an approval rate of around 22 percent.

Critics accuse him, among other things, of playing down the corona pandemic and doing too little for an economic recovery.

Nationwide, more than 600,000 people died in connection with Covid-19 in the South American country.

The election is likely to lead to a decision between Bolsonaro and his predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who ruled from 2003 to 2011.

Lula is currently well ahead of Bolsonaro in surveys.

In 2018, Lula was sentenced to twelve years and one month imprisonment in the second instance for corruption and money laundering.

Despite his lead in the polls, he was unable to take part in the next presidential election.

Instead, Bolsonaro moved into the presidential palace.

The Brazilian judiciary only overturned the verdicts against Lula in the spring.

ulz / AFP / AP