Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of Brazil's right-wing PL party and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, lifted a framed portrait of his father at a rally on Tuesday, September 22, in São Luís, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão, and dared the electoral court of Rio de Janeiro to take it. The move came one day after agents of the TRE-RJ, the regional electoral tribunal of Rio, seized a similar piece during street campaigning in Teresópolis, in Rio's mountain region.
According to UOL and Folha PE, the senator repeated the challenge before a crowd gathered at a store parking lot on Avenida Daniel de La Touche, in the Cohajap neighborhood, after a motorcycle caravan through the city:
"Come take my painting here, electoral court. Come take my painting. You will have to take me with it, because I will honor this man," Flávio said, referring to his father.
The seizure that prompted the scene took place on Monday, September 21. TRE-RJ agents confiscated the portrait carried by Rafael Satiê, a Rio city councilman running for the Chamber of Deputies with the PL, on the grounds that it amounted to irregular campaign material. "This is not campaign material. Is Bolsonaro a candidate?" Satiê asked in a video posted on social media. He called the operation ridiculous and said a campaign worker was threatened with arrest during the approach. According to one agent heard in the video, the man had threatened a police officer. Contacted by Revista Oeste, the TRE-RJ press office had not answered questions on the legal basis of the seizure by the time of publication.
What the electoral courts say
The dispute over Jair Bolsonaro's image escalated last week, when TSE Justice Estela Aranha granted an injunction ordering the withdrawal of campaign materials that use the former president's photo in a way that conveys support for a candidacy. The ruling answered a complaint by São Paulo state deputy Duda Hidalgo of the PT against fellow state deputy Lucas Bove of the PL, whose campaign had produced 50,000 santinhos, the small leaflets handed out to voters, showing Bolsonaro's image next to his own photo, name and ballot number. The restriction does not cover every photograph of the former president, only pieces in which the context presents him as a supporter of a candidate. In the justice's reading, the measures imposed on the former president by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) bar political-electoral statements "including by third parties, regardless of the means used." Those measures stem from a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes that bans Jair Bolsonaro from publicizing political-electoral statements until the end of the 2026 elections.
The episode comes 12 days before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4, in which Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Folha PE, is the main challenger to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT. In São Luís, the candidate said he would appoint five new justices to the Supreme Court if elected, according to G1, and again claimed, without presenting evidence, that the court is trying to interfere in the election. The TSE, Brazil's top electoral court, is also investigating him on suspicion of irregular boosting of his social media posts.