Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro put on hold on Sunday whether he will join the Liberal Party (PL, right) to seek his re-election in 2022.
“They want to know the date of birth of the baby even though I have not yet married. On what date will the child be born? I have a lot to talk with Valdemar,” said Bolsonaro, referring to Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the PL.
The president made these comments in front of Brazilian media in the framework of the Dubai air show, in the United Arab Emirates, where he has been on an official visit since Friday.
On Wednesday, the PL had announced that the accession of the far-right president would take place on November 22, before confirming in a statement that this date was postponed “after numerous exchanges this Sunday.”
“I see the date of the 22nd as difficult. I have already talked with him (Costa Neto) and we both agree that we can delay that marriage a bit so that it does not start out being too similar to the others. We don’t want that,” added Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has not been a member of any party for two years, after his break with the Social Liberal Party (PSL, right), which led him to win the 2018 presidential elections.
The PL is one of the parties of the so-called “Centrao”, an informal group of political formations that negotiate their support in exchange for important positions for their members, or subsidies for the electoral fiefdoms of their elected candidates.
Bolsonaro’s popularity fell to 22%, the lowest level since the beginning of his term in January 2019, and he appears as a loser in polls in an eventual election scenario against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) , if the latter decided to run.
Bolsonaro is on tour in the Persian Gulf trying to attract investment from sovereign wealth funds from countries that import large amounts of agricultural products from the South American giant.
After the Emirates, he will visit Bahrain on Tuesday and Qatar on Wednesday.
