'No to the father, no to the son': Rio students march as Bolsonaro name returns to the ballot

Thousands of people joined a student march through downtown Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday to protest presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and the surge of the far right in Brazil, days after he finished first in Sunday's election and advanced to a runoff.

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, will face veteran leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a second round on October 25. Protesters wore stickers rejecting both father and son, carried flags calling for the Bolsonaros to go, and raised posters against dictatorship as drums and fireworks moved with the crowd.

For many marchers, the fear was memory made present. Jair Bolsonaro, in office from 2019 to 2022, is remembered by critics for a pandemic period in which more than 700,000 people died in Brazil, and for vaccine denial that protesters said had put their own families at risk. One young participant said she believed in democracy and was scared, speaking through tears about fear of a backlash against her trans wife. Another, preparing for university entrance exams, called the rise of Bolsonarism sad and argued that much of its vote was driven by hostility to Lula's Workers' Party rather than belief in its proposals.

The march also targeted Flavio Bolsonaro's plans to seek amnesty for his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after his 2022 election loss. That promise turns the runoff into more than a contest between two candidates. For the students in Rio, it is a vote on whether the assault on an election result should end in punishment or be rewritten as a family restoration.

Brazil's first round ended with campaign rallies that already showed the country's split: Lula closed with a large march through Sao Paulo, while Flavio Bolsonaro campaigned with motorcycle caravans and a rally in Rio. If no candidate had won more than half the valid votes, the top two would advance, and that is the contest now set for October 25.

The Rio students were not waiting for the runoff to speak. Their message was preventive, not celebratory: a democracy that survived a coup attempt should not be asked to forget it at the ballot box.