“A coup is putting tanks on the streets, weapons, conspiracy. That did not happen in Brazil,” Bolsonaro said. “What I want is pacification. To erase the past and find a way for us to live in peace.”

He arrived at Paulista Avenue 30 minutes before the beginning of the rally. He was accompanied by dozens of MPs and some governors, including those of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, and Goias, Ronaldo Caiado, who have been touted by the right wing as potential candidates for the 2026 presidential election.

Israeli flags

The far-right leader gave his speech on top of a truck surrounded by supporters dressed in green and yellow, many of whom also carried Israeli flags.

Lula is in the middle of a diplomatic spat with Israel over comments in which he likened Israel’s war in Gaza to the Nazi genocide during World War II.

Bolsonaro, who said last week that the leftist president’s remarks were “criminal”, also unfurled an Israeli flag.

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Allies expect the demonstration to show that Bolsonaro, who is barred from running for office until 2030 for spreading election falsehoods and faces several other criminal probes, still holds political strength in the deeply polarised country.

“He is not dead, he is competitive and there can be no injustice,” said congressman Marco Feliciano, a member of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, adding Brazil would “turn into chaos” if the former leader were to be arrested.

“He wants to try to show his strength to the Supreme Court and remain politically viable, even if he gets arrested,” a source close to Bolsonaro said, comparing him to Lula, who spent 580 days in prison in 2018-2019 on corruption charges before having his sentence annulled.

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Jose Guimaraes, leader of Lula’s government in the lower house, downplayed the number of attendees.

“It was nothing extraordinary, it was within what we anticipated,” he said in an interview, adding that Bolsonaro was trying “to build a narrative to legitimise the coup attempt”.

Still, more than a dozen federal investigations into possible crimes ranging from the illegal sale of luxury jewellery he received as president to the falsification of vaccine records have forced even his closest allies to consider the possibility that he will face arrest.

In January, police raided the home of one of his sons, Carlos Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro city councillor and long-time adviser to his father, as part of an investigation into the misuse of Brazil’s spy agency.

Reuters, Bloomberg

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