Bolsonaro’s Son Stirs the Streets on Brazil’s Independence Day

On a chilly Monday that also happened to be Brazil’s Independence Day, a sea of people – roughly 28,500 according to researchers at the University of São Paulo – packed São Paulo’s iconic Paulista Avenue. They weren’t there for a concert or a parade; they’d come to hear right‑wing senatorial candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, slam the current government and the Supreme Court.

“This coalition of Lula and Moraes will end,” Flavio told the crowd, his voice amplified from a sound truck. “Anyone who votes for Lula is voting for Alexandre de Moraes.” The message was crystal clear: the president and the judge were being painted as a single, dangerous partnership.

The rally felt like a flashback to the massive street demonstrations that made Jair Bolsonaro a household name a few years back, but the numbers were noticeably lower. Last year’s similar event pulled in about 42,000 people, and a 2024 rally for the elder Bolsonaro swelled to nearly 185,000. Still, the atmosphere was electric, with inflatable dolls of Donald Trump holding a caricature of a jailed Lula looming over the sea of flags – Brazilian, U.S., and even Israeli.

Flavio’s running mate, Congressman Alfredo Gaspar, jumped on the bandwagon, echoing the same line: “There is no Lula without Alexandre, nor Alexandre without Lula. Out Lula, out Moraes!” The duo tried to tie the Supreme Court’s internal drama – a scandal involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes and a banker accused of a multibillion‑dollar fraud – to the broader political battle. Justice André Mendonça, a Bolsonaro appointee, had just released a report hinting at improper contacts, prompting calls for an investigation into Moraes, who in turn sought a probe into Mendonça.

For supporters like Deisi Moro, the rally was as much a protest as it was a campaign stop. “The dissatisfaction is enormous with a whole corrupted system,” she said, shivering slightly in the cold. “We are Bolsonaro supporters. It’s a shame what Bolsonaro went through, and now our option is Flavio.” Another attendee, 56‑year‑old Robson Nonato de Souza, summed it up as “political protest meets electoral campaigning.”

Meanwhile, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva kept his focus on a televised address the night before, stressing Brazil’s sovereignty and warning against foreign powers trying to turn the country into a “colony again.” He had attended the traditional Independence Day military parade in Brasília but chose not to speak directly at the event.

Polls released on the same day painted a nail‑biting picture: a Quaest survey showed Lula and Bolsonaro dead‑even at 41 % each for a potential runoff scheduled for October 25. With the first round set for October 4, every rally, every slogan, and every flag waved seems to matter more than ever.

Whether the turnout on a frosty Independence Day will translate into votes remains to be seen, but the message was loud and clear: the Bolsonaro camp wants voters to see Lula and Justice Moraes as inseparable, and they’re counting on that narrative to tip the scales in the coming weeks.