Bolsonaro will be unable to participate in the presidential elections of 2026 and the municipal elections of 2024 and 2028.
By Roberto Morejón
The political disqualification of Jair Bolsonaro for eight years obstructs the ambitions of the ultra-right-wing Brazilian ex-president, who led his country among outbursts, excesses and rampant conservatism.
The extremist politician had to abide by the decision of the Superior Electoral Court for having questioned the reliability of electronic ballot boxes and exposed before foreign ambassadors in 2022 a capricious anti-democratic profile of his country.
Bolsonaro, who says he is innocent and will appeal the ruling, will be unable to participate in the presidential elections of 2026 and the municipal elections of 2024 and 2028, as he coveted.
At 68 years of age, the legal outcome removes him from the electoral arena and holds him responsible for serious charges, including abuse of power and disinformation.
The magistrates also attributed to him the use of violent speech, lying and inciting what they described as a state of collective paranoia about the electoral system.
Nevertheless, his ambitions are accentuated and nobody doubts that the now disqualified former president for eight years, will look for substitutes that assume his ultraconservative philosophy and religious manipulation.
Not a few of his critics predict that Bolsonaro will try to train a dolphin among his children, the evangelical former first lady, Michelle, and the current governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, a military man who made a career in public administration.
Bolsonaro will try to shore up his chosen one without abandoning his defense strategy, as he is under investigation for other alleged transgressions.
After his defeat in the second round of October 2022 against the now Head of State Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, the caudillo's supporters blocked highways and camped in front of barracks demanding military intervention.
Many associate Bolsonaro himself with the invasion by his followers of the presidential, congressional and Supreme Court buildings in Brasilia on January 8, after Lula took office.
The retrograde ex-premier-in-chief also faces almost a dozen administrative proceedings in the electoral court and five investigations in the Supreme Court.
These threats of lawsuits are far from keeping him away from his stubborn crusade against the current progressive government and from his attempts to justify his disastrous management of the coronavirus pandemic, the reason for which more than 700 thousand Brazilians died.
With Bolsonaro out of the way for eight years, it would be a mistake to consider him liquidated.