Jair Bolsonaro is a politician from Brazil who has represented the state in the Chamber of Deputies for 27 years and served six terms in a row as the Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro. As a Social Liberal Party (PSL) candidate for president in the 2018 elections, he recently made the decision to do so. As a result, he gained notoriety in the international media as “Tropical Trump” due to his extreme right-wing politics and vehement opposition to left-wing programs. He has frequently said contentious things regarding same-sex marriage, equal pay for women, abortion, drug legalization, land reforms, affirmative action, and secularism during his time serving as a representative. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a candidate for the Workers’ Party (PT), became the front-runner in the general elections after being declared ineligible to run for president by the court. He received 46% of the vote in the first round, placing him in first position. On October 28, 2018, he will compete against PT candidate Fernando Haddad, who received 29% of the vote in the first round.
Early Childhood & Life
Perci Geraldo Bolsonaro and Olinda Bonturi gave birth to Jair Messias Bolsonaro on March 21, 1955 in Campinas, So Paulo, a city in the southeast of Brazil. He has two brothers and three sisters, making him the third of his parents’ six children.
Since there weren’t many dentists in Eldorado when the children were born, his father, a dentist without a college degree, had relocated there. But when skilled dentists showed up, he was brought to the Forum and assigned to work on prosthetics.
During his last years of school, Jair Bolsonaro was accepted into the Brazilian Army’s Preparatory School. He was then transferred to the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras. He earned his degree there in 1977 and spent some time working with the army’s parachutist battalions.
In 1986, after complaining to ‘Veja’ magazine about poor salary and officer terminations, Bolsonaro, who served in the military for 17 years and attained the rank of Captain, first came to the public’s attention. Although he received criticism from his superiors for his behavior, he was viewed as something of a hero by other officers, military spouses, and far-right activists.
Electoral Life of Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Bolsonaro began his political career in 1988 by running for city council in Rio de Janeiro on the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) platform after enlisting in the military reserve. He held that position until February 1st, 1991, when he took office as the Federal Deputy of Brazil’s second-largest economic state.
He ran for the PDC in the 1990 elections and served as the chamber of deputies’ vice leader. He was elected to the House of Representatives and spent his first term from February 1991 to February 1995 before being re-elected for a total of six times.
He shifted his allegiance to the newly formed Progressive Party (PP) in 1993. The PP and RPP ultimately combined to form the Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB) in 1995. He was re-elected to the position that year under the RPP banner, and he took office for a second term on February 1st, 1995.
He was elected to the same position twice more, under the PPB banner, in 1999 and 2003, although from 2003 to 2005, he was a member of the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB).
He briefly affiliated with the Liberal Front Party (PFL), the main right-wing political party in Brazil, in 2005.
After it changed its name back to Progressive Party (PP) in 2003, he joined the Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB) in 2005. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives twice more, in 2007 and 2011, and he remained a member of the party until 2016.
In 2016, he joined the Social Christian Party (PSC), and in March of that same year, he declared his intention to run for president. He soon switched over to the Social Liberal Party, though, and in August 2018 he started running for party president, selecting retired general Hamilton Mouro as his running mate.
On October 7, 2018, he received 46.03% of the vote in the first round of the general election, easily defeating Fernando Haddad, who received 29.28% of the vote. On October 28, 2018, he will contest the 2018 run-off elections against Haddad, a former mayor of So Paulo.
Political stances of Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Bolsonaro is a far-right politician with nationalist and populist ideas. Throughout his career, he has drawn criticism for his vehement opposition to left-wing programs. He is passionately opposed to same-sex marriage, abortion, immigration, affirmative action, drug liberalization, land reforms, and secularism. His admirers describe him as a conventional right-wing conservationist.
According to him, women should be paid less since they run the risk of becoming pregnant. He also wants to pass legislation that says paid maternity leave reduces employee productivity. He was punished in court for potentially inciting rape and defaming the honor of his colleague Deputy for saying that politician Maria do Rosário was “not worthy of being raped”.
He had previously stated that he couldn’t love a gay son and would much rather have him pass away in an accident in an interview with the “Playboy” magazine. He has made a number of controversial statements, including vowing to oppose the UNESCO proposal to distribute LGBT kits, linking homosexuality to pedophilia, openly defending hitting gay children, and receiving a fine for making homophobic remarks on television.
Throughout his career, he has repeatedly exalted the 1964–1985″ Brazilian military dictatorship in front of the public. He even continued to say on television that if he ever won the presidency, he would personally organize a military takeover.
He believes that the poor should be sterilized since they lack the education needed to practice good family planning.
Achievements of Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Bolsonaro has served as a legislator for 27 years and has held office six times in a row since being elected to the lower chamber of Congress. In Rio de Janeiro in 2014, he received 464,000 votes, making him the congressman with the most votes.
Personal Legacy & Life
Rogéria Nantes Braga, with whom Jair Bolsonaro had a first marriage, is the mother of his three boys, Flávio, Carlos, and Eduardo. Flávio and Eduardo are both politicians and attorneys.
Following the dissolution of his first marriage, he remarried Ana Cristina, the mother of his fourth son, Renan.
He married Michelle de Paula Firmo Reinaldo Bolsonaro in 2013, and she later gave birth to Laura, his only child, who Bolsonaro claimed was the result of “a moment of weakness.”
His present wife was employed as his secretary when he was a congressman, and she quickly moved up the corporate ladder and received many promotions as well as a pay boost. But a few years later, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that nepotism in the public sector is prohibited, forcing him to remove her.
Net worth of Jair Bolsonaro
The estimated net worth of Jair Bolsonaro is about $1 million.
Trivia
Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach on September 6, 2015, while mingling with fans during the presidential election campaign by Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, later identified as a former member of the Socialism and Liberty Party. He spent a month receiving treatment at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital and was unable to participate in the first round of campaigning directly.