Federal deputy Zé Trovão, of the PL party from the southern state of Santa Catarina, has taken the 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Família, Brazil's main cash-transfer program, to the TSE, the country's top electoral court. The raise was announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday, 17 days before the first round of the presidential election. In his petition, the lawmaker accuses the president of abuse of political power during the campaign. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Supreme Federal Court justice André Mendonça will serve as rapporteur on the case.

Trovão is an ally of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate running against Lula. His petition argues that the raise does not appear in the 2027 budget bill the government sent to Congress. The measure lifts the program's minimum monthly payment from 600 to 691 reais. According to Folha, the new value takes effect on October 19.

Opposition reaction and the government's defense

Flávio Bolsonaro, whom the g1 describes as Lula's main rival in the race, called the decree illegal. At a campaign event in Vitória da Conquista, in the state of Bahia, the senator said:

"Lula, in an act of despair, has just issued a decree knowing it is illegal and prohibited during the elections. He did something he failed to do in four years of government, and with 17 days to go he thinks he can fool anyone with a Bolsa Família raise."

The government rejects the accusation. The Finance Ministry said the increase only replaces inflation losses from recent years and does not amount to a hike in benefits, which electoral law restricts. The Attorney General's Office, the AGU, said the 2023 law that created the revamped Bolsa Família authorizes the executive branch to adjust the payments and bars any reduction. "Correcting the benefit by inflation, without expanding the number of recipients, is beyond the reach of any electoral restriction," the office said, according to the g1.

Precedent and next steps

The courts have already weighed in on welfare spending in an election year. In 2024, the Supreme Court struck down provisions of the so-called PEC das Bondades, an emergency spending amendment passed under Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, the year he lost to Lula. That same year brought the program's last increase, when Auxílio Brasil, as it was then called, rose from 400 to 600 reais. Planning Minister Bruno Moretti said the current raise will cost 5.8 billion reais between October and December and 22.7 billion reais a year in 2027 and 2028. "We are confident the fiscal space is larger than what is needed to fund this measure," he said. According to the g1, the raise reaches about 19.3 million families.

Mendonça now examines the petition before the case goes before the full electoral court. The calendar is tight: the first round is set for October 4, the new minimum payment takes effect on October 19, and a possible runoff follows on October 25.