Jair Bolsonaro: If the left wins in Brazil, it will “never give up power”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The return of the left in Brazil “will turn South America red” and leave the United States “isolated,” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told U.S. broadcaster Fox News on Thursday (30).

“If the left returns to power, I think it will never leave power and this country will follow the same path as Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. Brazil will be just another wagon on that train,” Bolsonaro said in an excerpt from an interview to be broadcast in full Thursday night.

“All of South America will be dyed red, and in my opinion, the United States will be practically an isolated country,” he added, according to the English translation of his Portuguese answers.

Bolsonaro, who has been in office since 2019 and is up for re-election in October, gave an interview to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. In the clip of the interview posted on Carlson’s Twitter account, the host asked the current president what Brazil would look like if his rival, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who polls show is close to a possible first-round victory, won.

Carlson pointed to the “startling” parallels between politics in Brazil and politics in the United States, emphasizing that Bolsonaro “is being opposed by a coalition of billionaires, university professors, and CNN.”

“My election was almost a miracle. I had nothing going for me. I was just an isolated member of Congress,” Bolsonaro responded. “The media never gave me visibility or space; on the contrary, they constantly attacked me throughout the campaign,” he said.