World
Flávio Bolsonaro says he will keep Bolsa Família and Farmácia Popular after campaign event in Rio
The PL candidate said social programs will remain in place and dismissed claims about privatizing Petrobras. He also appeared alongside Douglas Ruas and stressed a hard line against organized crime.
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, held a campaign event in Rio de Janeiro on Friday alongside state lawmaker Douglas Ruas, who is running for governor. During the event, he said they were aligned on taking a hard stance against organized crime.
According to Agência Brasil, Bolsonaro spoke to reporters during the gathering at Ilha Itanhangá, in Barra da Tijuca, where he met supporters and political allies. He also rejected reports that he would privatize Petrobras, describing that claim as a rumor.
Bolsonaro also thanked defeated presidential candidate Augusto Cury of Avante for his endorsement and said he is in talks with other parties. He insisted that social programs would be preserved and denied that he planned to end Bolsa Família.
Agência Brasil noted that the candidate has faced criticism because Jair Bolsonaro’s government proposed a 59% cut to the 2023 budget for Farmácia Popular, reducing funding from 2.04 billion reais to about 804 million reais.
The outlet also reported that campaign economic coordinator Daniella Marques has said in interviews that ministries would be reduced and public spending cut. It added that Folha de S.Paulo reported in October that Flávio Bolsonaro’s economic team was studying measures that could save up to 250 billion reais, including changes to pension adjustments, the BPC benefit and minimum spending levels for health and education. The campaign denies those proposals are official positions.
In its report on the event, Agência Brasil also revisited previous scrutiny involving Bolsonaro and Ruas over political ties to figures cited in militia-related investigations. In Ruas’s case, the agency said his father, Capitão Nelson, mayor of São Gonçalo, was named in the final report of Alerj’s militia inquiry in 2008 as one of the leaders of those groups in the region, an allegation he denies.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
