In Brazil, Michelle Bolsonaro leaves it to God, and Jair / Photo: © AFP/File
In Brazil, Michelle Bolsonaro leaves it to God, and Jair
Brazil's right is scrambling for a candidate in next year's election after leader Jair Bolsonaro was convicted over a botched coup -- and one of the names that keeps cropping up is that of his wife, Michelle.
Poised and deeply devout, Michelle Bolsonaro has embraced the political spotlight in recent years, going viral on social media, addressing large crowds, and fiercely defending her beleaguered husband.
"Any decision regarding possible candidacies will be based on a thorough debate with my husband...and will be the result of much prayer to discern the mission that God may eventually entrust to me," she said in an interview to AFP.
Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest and appealing a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss, leaving Brazil's conservatives without a standard-bearer for 2026 general elections.
Other rumored potential candidates include his son, the senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, and the governor of Parana state Carlos Roberto Massa, known as Ratinho ('Little Rat') Junior.
The 43-year-old Michelle Bolsonaro insisted it is "still early" to talk about candidacies, and complained about attempts to "force my husband" to hurry up and name a successor.
Jair "Bolsonaro is and will continue to be the greatest leader of the right in Brazil," she said.
- Appealing to conservative women -
Bolsonaro's third wife, Michelle is 27 years younger than her husband and presents herself as a traditional homemaker.
She remained largely behind the scenes for his first electoral campaign, but ventured into the spotlight as Bolsonaro became increasingly unpopular with women and faced accusations of misogyny.
"Michelle is the one who kept the house in order," Bolsonaro said of his one term in office between 2019 and 2022.
Bolsonaro reversed a vasectomy to have a child with Michelle, and once described fathering his daughter Laura as a "moment of weakness" after having sired four sons in previous marriages.
The former first lady is a sign-language interpreter for the deaf, a skill she used to use at mass and later at her husband's inauguration as president.
Her confidence has grown on stage, and her speech at a major rally in Sao Paulo during her husband's trial brought tears to the eyes of women in the crowd.
- 'The feminine' -
Michelle Bolsonaro said she is in favor of "the feminine, and not feminism."
Feminism "has lost its way. It stopped caring about the real needs of women to pursue the dubious objectives of the woke agenda," she told AFP.
The daughter of a bus driver and a housewife, Michelle de Paula Firmo Reinaldo was the eldest of five siblings raised in a poor neighborhood of the capital, Brasilia.
She met Bolsonaro in 2007, when he was a lawmaker and she was secretary to another parliamentarian. He later hired her and the two quickly married.
It was Michelle who played a key role in introducing the former president to the evangelical churches that have grown in political influence in recent years.
During the 2022 election campaign, she claimed that "communism" would "persecute the Christians of Brazil."
In her interview with AFP, she slammed a "judicial farce" against her husband.
US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Brazilian products and sanctions top officials over what he termed a "witch hunt" against his far-right ally.
Michelle said this was a result of Brazilian authorities "who violate human rights."
(O.Zhukova--DTZ)
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