Jair Bolsonaro

"Brazil above all, God above every."

- Jair Bolsonaro's slogan

Jair Messias Bolsonaro is the 38th and current President of Brazil, elected in October 2018, succeeding Michel Temer. He is considered to be a controversial figure due to his staunchly conservative ideology.

He is a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and homosexuality, abortion, affirmative action, drug liberalization and secularism. In foreign policy, he has advocated closer relations to the United States and Israel. During the 2018 presidential campaign, he started to advocate for economic liberal and pro-market policies.

A polarizing and controversial politician, his views and comments, which have been described both as right and far-right in nature, have drawn both praise and criticism in Brazil. He has even drawn comparisons to Augusto Pinochet, the military dictator of Chile between 1973 and 1990, due to their similar political ideologies.

Ideals
Jair Bolsonaro is well known for his polemical stands on several topics, such as minorities, LGBT population and crime. Besides being an admirer of the Brazilian military regime, in 1993 he openly supported Alberto Fujimori, a former Peruvian president charged with several crimes ranging from corruption to supporting forced sterilization programs. Later, in 1999, he openly supported the assassination of several people, including the then Brazilian president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Several other declarations made him appear to be a homophobe, misogynist and racist to many.

Bolsonaro's political views have been described as nationalist and populist in nature, and himself as an advocate of far-right policies. His supporters, however, claim that his views are more aligned with traditional right-wing conservatism. His electorate is mainly formed by young people (usually between 16 and 24), the working middle to upper class (mainly in the southeast region of the country), conservatives in general, college graduates, some centrists and the Christian right. According to some polls, Bolsonaro's main support comes from the southeast, central-west and south regions of Brazil. His voters are usually male and white, with a noticeable gender gap, with Bolsonaro polling poorly among female voters (mustering only 18% support with this demographic.) Just before the 2018 election, however, it was reported that female support for him had risen to 27%.

Bolsonaro is viewed as a pro-life, anti-establishment and pro-gun politician, voicing opposition to most forms of gun control legislation, arguing that law abiding citizens have the right to self-defense, especially those living in rural areas. According to The Washington Post, "Homicides hit a record high of 63,880 last year [...] Bolsonaro's solution is zero tolerance. He has called for police to use more lethal force and wants to relax gun laws so that average citizens can defend themselves." Bolsonaro often rejects accusations made against him of misogyny and homophobia, and says he is not "far-right", but simply right-wing.

He is considered a hero within the Alt-Right movement.

Quotes

 * "There is no doubt. I would launch a coup on the same day. [Congress] doesn't work and I'm sure that at least 90% of the population would applaud. Congress nowadays does nothing; it votes only for what the president wants. If he's who rules, who decides and who gloats above the Congress, then let the coup be launched, let it be a dictatorship."
 * "I'm not homophobic, fatophobic, flamengophobic, heterophobic. is the government that encourages this through the National Plan for the Promotion of Human Rights and LGBT Citizenship. The government is playing homo versus hetero."
 * "I'm not far-right. I'm an admirer of Trump. He wants America great, I want Brazil great."
 * "It is urgent to end the ideology that defends thugs and criminalizes police"
 * "We can not pick up certain minorities and think they have superpowers and are different from the rest. If we can achieve equality for everyone, everyone will be satisfied."
 * "Brazil will once again be a country free from ideological moorings."
 * "The Military Police should have killed 1,000 rather than 111 prisoners in the Carandiru massacre."
 * "I will not fight against it nor discriminate, but if I see two men kissing on the street, I'll beat them up."
 * "The only mistake of the dictatorship was torturing and not killing."
 * "If one's son begins acting kind of gay, then when he is spanked he'll change his behavior."
 * "Let us unite the people, value the family, respect the religions and our Judeo-Christian tradition. To combat the ideology of gender, while preserving our values."
 * "Sometimes I get lost in words, yes, I lose, I lose, I apologize. But our goal, exactly, is the good of all."
 * "I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I wouldn't be a hypocrite. I prefer that he die in an accident than show up with some guy with a moustache."
 * "Since we are a Christian country, God above all. This history of a secular state doesn't exist, no. The state is Christian and the minority that is against it can leave. Let's make a country for majority! The minority must bow to the majority. Law must exist to defend the majority! The minority suits itself [to the law] or just disappears."
 * "This idea of oh poor little black person, oh poor little poor person, oh poor little woman, oh poor little indigenous person, everybody's a poor little something!"
 * "The firearm, more than guaranteeing the life of a person, guarantees the freedom of a people."
 * "Paul says: 'Sell your cloak and buy a sword'. This is in the Bible. The Bible is our tool box. When she [Marina Silva] says I was wrong while talking about armament, there is this passage in the Bible. That's because in that time there was no firearms, otherwise it certainly would be a .50 machine gun or a rifle."
 * "I'm in favor of torture. You know that. And the people are too. Through the vote, you'll change nothing in this country. Nothing, absolutely nothing. We'll only get change, unfortunately, when we go into a civil war here someday and do a work the military regime didn't do, killing as much as thirty thousand people, starting with FHC. It's all right if some innocent people die. Innocent people die in many wars."
 * "I never hit my ex-wife. But many times I wanted to shoot her."
 * "She doesn't deserve it [to be raped] because she's very bad, because she's very ugly. She's not my type, I'd never rape her. I'm not a rapist, but if I was, I wouldn't rape her because she doesn't deserve it."
 * "The only mistake of the dictatorship was torturing and not killing."
 * "I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I wouldn't be a hypocrite. I prefer that he die in an accident than show up with some guy with a moustache."