MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Flávio Bolsonaro proposes constitutional reform to overhaul the courts and lower the criminal age

The candidate said he intended to use his party's legislative weight to choose the presiding officers of both chambers and “amend the Constitution, to redemocratise the country”

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who will face Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil's presidential runoff on October 25, has said that if he wins he will use his Liberal Party's congressional bloc to push a constitutional reform that would change the judiciary, lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 and abolish presidential re-election.

On Tuesday, at an event in Goiânia, the candidate said he intended to use his party's legislative weight to choose the presiding officers of both chambers and “amend the Constitution, to redemocratise the country, so that institutions once again respect the Constitution”. Amid concern over the remark, he set out the scope of the reform in Brasília on Wednesday and responded to those fearing an authoritarian turn: “I've seen people saying that now, with a majority, Flávio will do what his father didn't. Stop that. Let's come back down to the real world.” His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.

A constitutional amendment in Brazil requires three fifths of each chamber in two votes: 308 of 513 deputies and 49 of 81 senators. According to the newspaper El País, the Liberal Party won 121 seats in the Chamber of Deputies on Sunday, 20% more than in 2022, and with its allies would hold around 50 in the Senate. Those elected include the former president's wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, and his son Carlos, as senators.

Bolsonaro this week won the backing of two first-round candidates. Ronaldo Caiado, a former governor of Goiás who won around 2.2% of the vote, endorsed him at the Goiânia event: “I'm here to defeat the PT.” Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema, with less than 1%, did so on Monday. São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas, re-elected on Sunday, also attended.

Bolsonaro, who won 47% of valid votes to Lula's 45%, had already announced on Monday plans to cut the number of ministries and appoint at least four Supreme Federal Court justices. Lula held no public events on Monday or Tuesday and met his campaign team in Brasília, which has said the president will seek direct confrontation in the runoff.