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BRASIL Flávio Bolsonaro gains backing from União Progressista, the rural caucus and former rivals ahead of the runoff
The federation of União Brasil and Progressistas said it unanimously decided to support the PL candidate in the second round. The farm caucus, Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema also lined up behind him.
Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, picked up new endorsements on Tuesday ahead of the October 25 runoff against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT.
According to O Globo, the federation formed by União Brasil and Progressistas, known as União Progressista, announced its support for the senator. Senator Tereza Cristina said, as cited by the newspaper, that the decision was unanimous within the federation and the parties’ executive bodies, which met on Tuesday. PP president Ciro Nogueira and União Brasil president Antonio Rueda also attended the meeting.
O Globo added that, taken together, União Brasil and PP elected 86 deputies in this year’s election. The outlet also said the two parties had won a combined 106 seats in 2022, with 59 for União and 47 for PP.
G1, meanwhile, reported that members of the rural caucus in the National Congress met with Flávio Bolsonaro and formally declared their support for him in the runoff. The announcement was made by Pedro Lupion, head of the Frente Parlamentar Agropecuária.
Also on Tuesday, Ronaldo Caiado declared his support for Flávio Bolsonaro after a meeting in Goiás. O Globo reported that the former presidential candidate finished fifth in the first round with 2,605,148 votes, or 2.18% of valid ballots.
Romeu Zema had already declared his vote for Flávio Bolsonaro on Monday. According to O Globo, the Novo candidate received 326,488 votes, equal to 0.27% of valid ballots, according to the Superior Electoral Court.
In the first round, Flávio Bolsonaro won more than 56 million votes, while Lula received 53.8 million. O Globo and G1 also agree that Augusto Cury of Avante and Renan Santos of Missão have said they will back neither finalist.
Agência Brasil also reported that, during an event in Goiânia, Flávio Bolsonaro said he wants to make use of the election of several right-wing lawmakers to push for constitutional changes. The same outlet said Lula spent the day in Brasília in campaign meetings and later defended ending the 6×1 work schedule and cutting the weekly workload from 44 to 40 hours.
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.
