In conversation with Tarcísio, Bolsonaro rules out son Eduardo as presidential

At the first meeting since he was sentenced to 27 years in prison with the governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, Jair Bolsonaro said, according to allies, that he wishes to maintain Eduardo Bolsonaro’s candidacy for the Senate for Sao Paulo in 2026, but ruled out the possibility that his son be launched to the Plateau.

The meeting, a lunch, took place in the condominium where the former president fulfills house arrest in Brasilia, and was also attended by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and Councilman Jair Renan.

According to reports from interlocutors, Bolsonaro was exhaustive in defending Eduardo as a family name in the São Paulo dispute. The reading is that although the vacancy does not make other allies unfeasible-such as Guilherme Derrite, former Secretary of Tarcisio Security and today PP deputy-the emphasis on the child symbolizes the former president’s attempt to preserve direct influence on the country’s largest electoral college.

Eduardo, however, has been out of Brazil since February and has faced investigations that can lead to ineligibility, which makes allies discuss alternatives to the plate.

Bolsonaro’s position contrasts with that of Eduardo himself, who last week stated in an interview with Metropolis that he would be a presidential candidate even without his father’s support.

– I am, in the impossibility of Jair Bolsonaro, candidate for president of the Republic; That is why the system runs and rushes to try to condemn me to any collegiate, which is in the first class of the Supreme Court, to try to make me ineligible – he said.

Among allies, the assessment is growing that if Eduardo remains outside Brazil or has its aggravated legal situation, there is no way to register its candidacy in 2026. Bolsonaro’s bet on the Senate acts in this context, also as a shield attempt, offering his son an allies considered as safer than presidential rhetoric.

In relation to Planalto, Bolsonaro would have told Tarcisio that he does not see viability in a national project by Eduardo. Contrary to what allies close to ventilating, it deals with the hypothesis as a rhetorical resource, useful for maintaining the family’s protagonism in the public debate and preserving the persecution narrative that sustains its base. The governor of São Paulo, in turn, took advantage of the meeting to reaffirm that he will be a candidate for reelection, resisting the pressures of sectors of the pockets they would like to see him on the Planalto.

The insistence on reelection is read by allies as a way of giving a “calm” in speculation and gaining time, because, in the midst of Bolsonaro’s future and the processing of amnesty in Congress, any early gesture could generate noise. On the way out, Flávio Bolsonaro made a point of praising the governor, but conditioned the debate on the succession of amnesty approval.

-Tarcisio is one of the main assets that the center-right has. It’s been doing a great job, ”said the senator. He added: – Only after this legislative process of amnesty and this final unfolding has it not to anticipate anything.

In the PL, leaders evaluate that Eduardo’s candidacy to the Senate was the natural way, but that the scenario tends to complicate. Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the subtitle, seeks to calibrate the speech between loyalty to the Bolsonaro family and the pressure of the center by names with greater viability. An ally of Valdemar said that Eduardo is already regarded as a letter outside the deck.

Tarcisio himself has an interest in picking up in the other São Paulo vacancy, which would allow the right to launch a competitive double plate in 2026. In addition to Eduardo and Derrite, other names in conversations: Marcos Pereira, president of the Republicans, who maintain proximity to the governor and could claim space; Ricardo Salles, remembered by more ideological wings, and even Janaína Paschoal, former deputy who retains recall among pockets.

This Monday’s lunch also had room to deal with the amnesty agenda. Tarcisio stated on the way out that the proposal to reduce penalties “does not satisfy” and reiterated the defense of a broader text. For allies, the insistence on a legislative solution capable of relieving Bolsonaro’s situation acts as a political currency and conditions any conversation of 2026.

Outside the microphones, a less radical wing of PL negotiates for Bolsonaro to serve his sentence at home. The family, however, states that any negotiation occurs without their authorization.