FILE PHOTO: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro meets with supporters, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, November 17, 2023. REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo
BRASILIA (Reuters) - The leader of Brazil's biggest right-wing party cannot speak to his candidate for the 2026 presidential election by court order, even though his office is across the corridor.
Valdemar Costa Neto, head of the conservative Liberal Party (PL), has to call up when arriving at party headquarters to avoid bumping into former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in the lift. That makes it hard to plan campaign strategy.
Still, Costa Neto is banking on Congress passing a constitutional amendment that would overturn the court order banning Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030.
"Bolsonaro's charisma is amazing. People turn out in droves. Some cry when he appears in public," he said in an interview.
Brazil's electoral authority declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years due to his baseless attacks on the country's electronic voting system. He is also under investigation for allegedly plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to leftist President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva, which he denies.
To prevent witness tampering in that probe, which federal police are working to conclude next month, the Supreme Court has barred conversations between Bolsonaro and Costa Neto.
The PL became the largest party in the lower house of Congress riding Bolsonaro's coattails after Brazil's electorate shifted to the right in 2018.
Now Costa Neto is hoping the party will become the largest in the Senate in 2026 so it can muster enough support to impeach Supreme Court justices that have ruled against Bolsonaro.
The PL also made strides in municipal elections this month, winning mayoral races in two of 26 state capitals and disputing nine more in Oct. 27 runoff votes.
"We got more votes in local elections than any other party, thanks to Bolsonaro. He is a very big force," Costa Neto said. "But I cannot meet him or speak to him even though his office is meters from here," he added.
That has made campaigning difficult, especially since Bolsonaro is disorganized, resists taking advice and has extreme right views that do not help win moderates, he said.
"We must draw more centrist voters who we need to win the 2026 election, but that is very difficult for Bolsonaro to accept. We will have to convince him. The right and the extreme right do not have enough votes," Costa Neto told Reuters.
Brazilian conservatives are increasingly looking to Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas as a new standard bearer on the Brazilian right. Asked if the governor could be the PL's Plan B for 2026, Costa Neto said that would be up to Bolsonaro.
The PL leader is hoping a victory by former U.S. President Donald Trump next month will boost right-wing sentiment globally, helping conservatives in Brazil who have been hounded by the country's judiciary, he said.
"We are rooting for Trump to win in the United States," he said. "That would help put things in order here, consolidating the right in the largest Western democracy," he added.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Brad Haynes and Nick Zieminski)
