Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro joins Liberal Party ahead of 2022 Presidential elections

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro joined the Liberal Party on Tuesday, 30 November. The decision of Bolsonaro comes ahead of elections that are scheduled to be held in 2022, according to AP. Bolsonaro for the last two years was not part of any political party and he had even criticised the political practices during campaigning in 2018.

Brazil president joins Liberal party

Bolsonaro, another cabinet minister and one of his sons Sen Flavio Bolsonaro joined the Liberal Party during a ceremony in Brasilia. While joining the party, Bolsonaro said, “It is a simple event, but very important so that we can compete for something later,” as per AP. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed hope that the alliance would help him in defeating former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served between 2003 to 2011 and might contest for elections in 2022. 

Marco Antonio Teixeira, a political science professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, told The Associated Press that as the elections are scheduled to be held in 2012, Bolsonaro joined a political party in order to have resources for campaigning. Teixeira added that Bolsonaro needs to show results and claimed that he does not have them as the economy of the country is "very weak" and it does seem to be improving in the short term. 

"Bolsonaro must show results that he does not have. The economy is very weak and there are no prospects for improvement in the short term," Marco Antonio Teixeira told The Associated Press. 

The Liberal Party, formerly known as the Republic Party, started in 1985 when Brazil had regained democracy. Valdemar da Costa Neto, the Liberal Party president, was convicted for corruption and money laundering in the vote-buying case in 2012 and has also been in prison. The party has supported the leftist Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff. The party has welcomed the decisions of Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s government proposals in Congress. Currently, the Liberal Party has 42 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Inputs from AP

Image: AP