Flávio Bolsonaro, senator for Rio de Janeiro and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, opened his 2026 presidential bid with a rally on Copacabana beach on Sunday, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The event was staged as a symbolic return to the Bolsonaro family’s political roots in Rio, where the elder Bolsonaro gathered tens of thousands of supporters in 2022.
Allies acknowledge that comparisons with Jair Bolsonaro will be inevitable, but they frame the rally as merely the opening act of Flávio’s campaign. Bruno Bonetti, president of the Liberal Party (PL) in Rio de Janeiro, said the location underscored a personal connection: “Everything started in Rio de Janeiro and it makes sense that Bolsonarism, under Flávio’s leadership, continues here. It is as if he says: I come from this land. That is very strong.”
The Folha report notes that the 2022 rally, monitored by Universidade de São Paulo’s Political Debate Monitor, drew about 64,000 people to the area near post 6 of Copacabana and featured strong electoral rhetoric targeting the Supreme Court and then‑candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In contrast, a March 2025 rally in favour of amnesty for the January 8 protesters was estimated by Datafolha at 30,000 participants, while the Military Police put the figure at 400,000—illustrating the frequent divergence in crowd‑size claims.
Flávio’s campaign team plans to follow the Copacabana event with a motorbike cavalcade in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais—the city where Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed during the 2018 presidential race—and then move to Belo Horizonte for the launch of businessman Flávio Roscoe’s gubernatorial bid in Minas Gerais.
The senator’s Rio de Janeiro slate has been weakened by a series of police operations targeting Bolsonaro allies and by the decision of União Brasil to abandon the PL coalition in the state. Former governor Cláudio Castro withdrew from the Senate race after two Federal Police operations, one linked to the Banco Master scandal. The vacant Senate slot was filled urgently after the arrest of former Belford Roxo mayor Márcio Canella, who was apprehended with an assault rifle during a money‑laundering investigation at gasoline stations.
Flávio intends to use the rally to bolster the image of his gubernatorial candidate, state deputy Douglas Ruas, while the PL will field its own Senate candidates—senator Carlos Portinho and federal deputy Carlos Jordy—given the lack of a coalition partner in Rio.