The 2018 presidential campaign of Jair Bolsonaro was announced on 3 March 2016. Brazilian
federal deputy
The Chamber of Deputies ( pt, Câmara dos Deputados) is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. The chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year t ...
and former military officer
Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
became the official nominee of the
Social Liberal Party during their convention on 22 July 2018. The running mate decision came later on 8 August, when
General Hamilton Mourão
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...
was chosen to compose the ticket with Bolsonaro. By choosing Mourão as running mate Bolsonaro secured a coalition with the
Brazilian Labour Renewal Party
The Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (, PRTB) is a conservative Brazilian political party. It was founded in 1994 and its electoral number is 28. According to the party's official website, the PRTB's main ideology is participatory economics: "to e ...
.
Jair Bolsonaro was the first candidate for the presidency that was able to raise over $1 million
reais
The Brazilian real ( pl. '; sign: R$; code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real replaced the cruzeiro real in 1994.
A ...
in donations from the public during the 2018 campaign. In the first 59 days, he amassed an average of $17,000 reais per day in donations.
Bolsonaro was stabbed on 6 September while he was campaigning in
Juiz de Fora
Juiz de Fora (, '' Outsider Judge''), also known as J.F., is a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, approximately from the state border with Rio de Janeiro. According to 2020 estimates the current population is about 57 ...
. He recovered, and was the leading candidate in the first round on 7 October, with 46% of the vote. On 28 October, Bolsonaro won the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
with 55.13% of the popular vote.
Presidential ticket
Running mate selection process
Numerous politicians were mentioned as potential
vice presidential running mates for Bolsonaro. In addition to General
Hamilton Mourão
Antônio Hamilton Martins Mourão (; born 15 August 1953) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer serving as the 25th vice president of Brazil. He has served as vice president under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro since 1 Januar ...
, who was eventually chosen, figures mentioned as possible running mates for Bolsonaro included:
*
Marcos Pontes
Marcos Cesar Pontes (born 11 March 1963) is a Brazilian Air Force pilot, engineer, Agência Espacial Brasileira, AEB astronaut, politician and author. He became the first South American and the first Lusophone to go into space when he docked onto ...
, a famous astronaut and member of the PSL who would eventually become Bolsonaro's
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
.
*
Janaina Paschoal, a law professor at the
University of São Paulo
The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the best ...
who helped initiate the
Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff
The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th president of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Dilma Rousse ...
; Paschoal would later be elected to the
Legislative Assembly of São Paulo
The Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo ( pt, Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo) is the unicameral legislative branch of São Paulo (state), São Paulo state in Brazil. The building where the legislative assembly is loca ...
.
*
Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Bragança, a member of the
Brazilian imperial family
The Brazilian Imperial Family (Brazilian Portuguese: ''Família Imperial Brasileira'') is a Brazilian Dynasty of Portuguese origin that ruled the Empire of Brazil from 1822 in Brazil, 1822 to 1889 in Brazil, 1889, after the proclamation of indepe ...
and descendant of Emperor
Pedro II; Luiz Philippe would later be elected to the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
.
*
Augusto Heleno
Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira (born 29 October 1947) is a Brazilian politician coup articulator and retired General of the Brazilian Army. He was military commander of the Amazon and Chief of the Department of Science and Technology of the Arm ...
, a retired General in the
Brazilian Army who would eventually become Bolsonaro's
Secretary of Institutional Security.
*
Marcelo Álvaro Antônio
Marcelo Henrique Teixeira Dias, popularly known as Marcelo Álvaro Antônio (born 16 February 1974), is a Brazilian entrepreneur and politician, and current Minister of Tourism of Brazil.
He was the most voted Federal Deputy in Minas Gerais in ...
, member of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
from
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
*
Magno Malta
Magno Malta (born October 16, 1957) is a Brazilian fundamentalist evangelical pastor, religious singer, and politician. He has represented Espírito Santo in the Federal Senate from 2003 to 2019 and was re-elected for a separate term that sta ...
,
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
from
Espirito Santo
''Espirito'' (Brazilian for "Spirit") is the second album by Lawson Rollins. Rollins composed all of the music and co-produced the album with Persian-American musician and producer Shahin Shahida (of Shahin & Sepehr) and multi-platinum producer Do ...
Primary elections
The National Executive Committee of Social Liberal Party, and the National Executive Committee of the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party, elected the candidate for office of vice-president and the National Directory of PSL, elected the candidate to President of republic. Karina Rodrigues Fidelix da Cruz (PRTB), appointed by PRTB, and Gulliem Charles Bezerra Lemos (PSL), appointed by PSL, were the delegates of the coalition. Gustavo Bebiano Rocha was the representative of the slate for the Supreme Electoral Court.
Janaína Paschoal
Janaina Conceição Paschoal (, born 25 June 1974) is a Brazilian jurist and politician. She is a member of the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (PRTB) since 2022, having been elected state representative of the State of São Paulo in 2018 by the ...
refused to be the vice-president candidate together Bolsonaro.
Campaign background
Before his campaign, Bolsonaro desired that the senator Magno Malta (from the Party of Republic) or Augusto Heleno,(from the Progressive Republican Party) become the vice-president in his slate,
but their parties did not allow the two of them to compete together.
During his campaign, Bolsonaro has praised the two-decade (1964-1985)
military dictatorship in Brazil
The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dicta ...
and has praised foreign
autocrats
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...
such as
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator,
*
*
*
*
*
*
he remains a ...
of
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
and
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
of
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
.
Bolsonaro has promised to give police permission to shoot first and ask questions later.
His platform also promotes liberalizing gun laws and repressive tactics against urban criminality and drug trafficking, along with the advocation of rolling back affirmative action for black-Brazilians and reversing legislation which increases sentences for murdering women because of their gender (
femicide
Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russel ...
).
Despite earlier calls for massive policy shifts in environmentalism, Bolsonaro backed away from calls to pull Brazil out of the
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...
s, and the elimination of Brazil's Environmental Ministry. However he told international non-profit groups such as the
World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...
, that he would not allow their agendas in Brazil, strongly protested against lands reserved for indigenous tribes, and plans to expand
nuclear
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
* Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear space
*Nuclear ...
and
hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
into the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
.
Some supporters of Bolsonaro have compared him to
US President Donald Trump, and believe that he, like Trump, will bring the radical change that they feel is needed in response to the "lawlessness" of Brazil, with many nicknaming Bolsonaro "the legend."
Steve Bannon
Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during t ...
(chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 presidential bid) has advised Bolsonaro's campaign.
Social media
Social media is believed to have made a large impact on Bolsonaro's campaign and at the time of the election he had over 4.3 million followers and many support pages on Facebook along with over 400 thousand followers on Instagram, making him one of the candidates with the largest support on social media. He made daily posts related to army topics and aimed at the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and also interacted with many supporters through posts, replies, and groups on
WhatsApp
WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...
. During the election Bolsonaro faced allegations that some of his important financial supporters illegally used WhatsApp as means to spread fake news about his opponent Haddad, prompting the company to ban thousands of active accounts during the election period. His supporters have been credited as being extremely active on social media and disseminate most content throughout WhatsApp as almost 93% of them claim to have accounts where almost 43% are politically active in the App.
Voter Demographic
Bolsonaro's supporters were primarily aged between 16 and 34 years old at about 60% of his voters, almost 30% of which were 24 years old or younger.
Endorsements
Polls
As of late September, Bolsonaro led the polls with 28% of polled voters, with an Ibope poll (22-24 September) stating that 36% of men surveyed said they would vote for him, while only 18% of women backing his policies.
A
Datafolha Datafolha is Grupo Folha's polling institute, founded in 1983 as the research department of Empresa Folha da Manhã S. A., and later on became a separate company able to serve external clients, from 1990. In 1995, it became a separate business unit ...
poll released on 10 September showed that Bolsonaro was rejected by 49% of female voters, but supported by 17%.
In the first round of elections on 7 October, Bolsonaro received 46.03% of the vote, the most of any candidate.
The day before the election, polls gave Bolsonaro an 8-10% advantage over
Fernando Haddad
Fernando Haddad (born 25 January 1963) is a Brazilian academic and politician who has served as the Brazilian Minister of Finance since 1 January 2023. He was previously the Mayor of São Paulo from 2013 to 2016. He was the Workers' Party candid ...
.
Attack during campaign event
![Bolsonaro é esfaqueado (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Bolsonaro_%C3%A9_esfaqueado_%282%29.jpg)
Bolsonaro was stabbed on 6 September 2018 while campaigning and interacting with supporters in the city of
Juiz de Fora
Juiz de Fora (, '' Outsider Judge''), also known as J.F., is a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, approximately from the state border with Rio de Janeiro. According to 2020 estimates the current population is about 57 ...
,
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
.
Bolsonaro's son,
Flávio Flávio is a Portuguese language given name, equivalent of Latin Flavius, and Italian and Spanish Flavio. The Portuguese diminutive form is Flavinho.
People
* Flávio da Silva Amado (1979), better known as Flávio, Angolan footballer
*Antônio Flá ...
, has stated that his father's wounds were only superficial and he was recovering in hospital.
Police arrested and identified the attacker as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, who claimed that he was "ordered by God to carry out the attack".
Flávio Bolsonaro later stated that the wounds inflicted seem worse than initially thought. He tweeted about his father's condition, explaining that the perforation reached part of the liver, the lung and part of the intestine. He also stated that Bolsonaro had lost a large amount of blood, arriving at the hospital with a pressure of 10/3, but had since stabilized.
Most of the other candidates in the presidential race (from both sides of the
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
), and the then Brazilian president,
Michel Temer
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 31 December 2018. He took office after the impeachment and removal from off ...
, condemned the attack.
After the end of the elections, Bolsonaro decided to donate the rest of the money collected in the campaign, to the Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital, where he got hospital treatment after the assassination attempt.
Protests and rallies
Protests
![EleNao Largo da Batata 12](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/EleNao_Largo_da_Batata_12.jpg)
Hundreds of thousands of women across Brazil staged protests on September 29, against Bolsonaro's candidacy. One protester told reporters "I'm part of a portion of society that is greatly affected by the types of things
olsonarosays and thinks. This conservative wave, which has really always existed in Brazil, needs to come to an end." Protesters in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
,
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
and
Brasilia chanted "Ele Não (Not him!)" which has become a slogan to protest Bolsonaro, emphasizing that the groups aims are for the undecided voters to vote "for anyone else, but not him."
Many protesters have expressed outrage over past statements by Bolsonaro that homosexuality was equated with paedophilia, and that he once told
Congresswoman Maria do Rosario that she wasn't worth raping, citing these events as reasons to protest his campaign.
Bolsomito
''Bolsomito 2K18'' (later renamed ''Bolsomito''), is a 2D
beat 'em up
The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...
video game by Brazilian developer BS Studios, released for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
in October 2018. The game reportedly promotes the ideology of Brazilian politician Jair Bolsonaro (who is also referred to as "Bolsomito"). The game and Bolsonaro's ideology have been criticized by the press for being racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
The game's availability on
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
caused Brazil's
Public Ministry of Federal Districts and Territories to investigate BS Studios and
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...
for potentially harming the 2018 general election.
Rallies
![Protesto pró-Bolsonaro em Londres](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Protesto_pr%C3%B3-Bolsonaro_em_Londres.jpg)
There were also rallies in support of the candidate in sixteen states.
Election result
Presidential elections
Achievements
The campaign receipts were R$4.001.413,01 while the costs summed R$2.456.215,03.
Bolsonaro had the cheapest campaign among the main candidates.
The cost per vote was R$0,03 against R$0,73 of his opponent Haddad. At the end, he tried to donate the remaining value to Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital but was not possible according to the election laws. About R$1.300.000,00 was raised by people in social medias to thanks Santa Casa Hospital.
Party representation
*
Social Liberal Party (Brazil)
The Social Liberal Party ( pt, Partido Social Liberal, links= Partido Social Liberal, PSL) was a far-right political party in Brazil, that merged with the Democrats and founded the Brazil Union. Founded in 1994 as a social-liberal political par ...
*
Brazilian Labour Renewal Party
The Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (, PRTB) is a conservative Brazilian political party. It was founded in 1994 and its electoral number is 28. According to the party's official website, the PRTB's main ideology is participatory economics: "to e ...
See also
*
Presidency of Jair Bolsonaro
The presidency of Jair Bolsonaro started on January 1, 2019, when he was inaugurated as the 38th president of Brazil, and will end on December 31, 2022. The cabinet Lula da Silva III will be inaugurated on January 1, 2023. He was elected the pre ...
*
Jair Bolsonaro 2022 presidential campaign
The Jair Bolsonaro 2022 presidential campaign was officialized on 24 July 2022 in Rio de Janeiro. His running mate is former Minister of Defence Walter Braga Netto. Incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, elected in 2018 for the first term, is a candid ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Jair Bolsonaro (PSL, PRTB) para PresidenteJair Bolsonaro - ZippNoticias
2018 Brazilian general election
Conservatism in Brazil
2018 Brazilian presidential campaings
Jair Bolsonaro
2018 presidential campaigns