Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son’s 2026 presidential campaign on Thursday while out of jail for more surgery that has dogged him since a stabbing seven years ago.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 44, has said he wants to consolidate his father’s conservative legacy at the Oct. 4 vote, where he will try to unseat leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“With the commitment of not allowing the popular will to be silenced, I make the decision to nominate Flavio Bolsonaro as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2026,” Jair Bolsonaro said in a letter read out by Flavio in front of a hospital in the city of Brasilia where his father was being treated.
He was undergoing scheduled treatment for a hernia, his wife Michelle Bolsonaro said on social media.
Jair Bolsonaro, 70, has a history of hospitalizations and surgeries related to a stabbing he suffered while campaigning in 2018, including a 12-hour procedure for recurring intestinal issues in April this year.
