Bolsonaro Allies Gain Senate Strength in Clash With Top Court

Conservatives and allies of Flávio Bolsonaro surged in Brazil’s Senate elections, moving the right close to the votes needed to impeach Supreme Court justices and likely escalating its long-running confrontation with the judiciary.

Sunday’s Senate result came alongside a stronger-than-expected showing by Bolsonaro that left him in a strong position to win the presidency in an Oct. 25 runoff. If elected, he could appoint as many as four of the Supreme Court’s 11 justices during his term.

Perhaps more significant, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party is expected to roughly double its 15-member Senate caucus. It would still need allies to reach the 54 votes, or two-thirds of the chamber, required to remove a Supreme Court justice, but its gains would give the party far more leverage to assemble such a majority. No justice has ever been removed that way in Brazil’s young democracy.

Bolsonaro and his supporters have long clashed with justices over investigations into the spread of fake news and, later, an attempted coup following President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 2022 election victory.

The top court sentenced his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn his 2022 election defeat to Lula. Long a target of Brazil’s right, the court has faced renewed scrutiny after revelations that several justices had ties to Daniel Vorcaro, the jailed former owner of Banco Master SA, a defunct lender at the center of a major banking fraud investigation.

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Federal police are also investigating Flávio Bolsonaro’s dealings with Vorcaro for possible crimes including corruption after the senator sought funding from the banker for a film about his father. Even so, voters appeared to answer his call to shift the Senate to the right.

His stepmother, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, won a seat in Brasilia, while his brother Carlos was elected in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Members of the Bolsonaros’ party also captured both Senate seats in Rio de Janeiro, the family’s traditional political base.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and home to some of the highest-profile contests, conservatives defeated two close Lula allies — former ministers Simone Tebet and Marina Silva.

The Senate results could also bring objectives long pursued by the right within reach if Flávio Bolsonaro wins Brazil’s top job.

Those goals include tougher sentencing, such as lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 16, as well as granting amnesty to rioters convicted of storming government buildings in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023, days after Lula’s inauguration.