Flávio Bolsonaro’s ticket reached the first round as the arrangement that remained possible. On August 5, at PL headquarters, he announced federal deputy Alfredo Gaspar (PL-AL) as his running mate. CBN reported that Tereza Cristina (PP) and former Caixa president Daniella Marques had been considered for the position, and that União Brasil, PP and Republicanos had preferred neutrality in the presidential race. Valor Econômico described Gaspar as the possible running mate, rather than the ideal one, and Michelle Bolsonaro as a campaigner after her public rift with her stepson. The same newspaper recalled that Tarcísio de Freitas had been considered to lead the Bolsonaro camp’s ticket.

Original quotation in Portuguese

O vice possível, não o ideal.

Valor Econômico, 5 ago 2026

On the other side, Lula’s campaign brought back the broad coalition of 2022. At the close of the party conventions, G1 described the landscape in the largest electoral constituencies. In São Paulo, the largest, Fernando Haddad (PT) faced Tarcísio, and Lula’s platform brought together Haddad, Márcio França, Simone Tebet and Marina Silva. Flávio attended the launch of Tarcísio’s reelection campaign and received the governor’s support, without Republicanos joining the presidential ticket nationally.

The TSE registered 12 tickets. After Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula, the highest vote totals went to Augusto Cury (AVANTE), with 2.89% and 3,448,569 votes, Renan Santos (MISSÃO), with 2.24% and 2,675,887 votes and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), with 2.18% and 2,605,148 votes. The other 7 received less than 1% of valid votes.

On October 4, no one crossed half of the valid votes. The surprise was the order and the margin. Flávio finished ahead. Lula, the incumbent president, went to a runoff and had to reorganize his campaign to speak differently over the next three weeks. CNN Brasil described the gap as the smallest ever recorded in a presidential first round.

Original quotation in Portuguese

Baixar a bola, ouvir o resultado e falar para fora da própria base.

Metrópoles, sobre o jantar de ministros

The right’s gains went beyond the presidential race. UOL called the PL result a tsunami: 121 of the 513 deputies, the Chamber’s largest group and a party’s best result since the MDB in 1986. Nikolas Ferreira was reelected with more than 3.1 million votes, the most votes ever won by a deputy in the country, and Lucas Pavanato exceeded 3 million. In the Senate, the PL took 19 of the 54 seats contested. G1 counted a record 20 governors elected outright in the first round, above the 18 of 2018. Of those, 11 had supported Flávio and 5 had supported Lula.

Lula’s campaign read the results as an instruction. On October 6, G1 reported a digital task force with young politicians elected on Sunday: Ana Elisa (PT-MG), with 524,216 votes, described by the outlet as the country’s youngest female deputy; Erika Hilton and Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP); and Jones Manoel (PSOL-PE). Metrópoles described the ministers’ dinner that night, where Guilherme Boulos delivered Lula’s message: show some humility, listen to the result and speak beyond their own base.

The response did not wait for campaign headquarters. O Globo reconstructed the message that 22-year-old law student João Paulo Pimenta Armando sent to two UFF classmates at 9:45 p.m. on October 4: they had to hold a demonstration. The next day, on the Ingá campus in Niterói, the group raised the ‘Direito UFF Antifascista’ banner, a fixture at the law school since 2018. The idea was an internal event. People asked to take to the streets, and they did, without a script.

Original quotation in Portuguese

Temos que fazer um ato.

O Globo, mensagem de 4 out 2026, 21h45

Revista Fórum and Rádio Manchete recorded the march led by the Evaristo da Veiga student association: Gragoatá, Ingá, Icaraí, banners and chants against amnesty. This was not a nationwide demonstration called by a party. It was students responding to Flávio’s lead. The videos spread beyond the university. O Globo later counted 15 pro-Lula demonstrations in Niterói over the runoff’s 21 days. From that point on, the streets were filled by people making their own decisions.

On the same Sunday as the first round, fan communities put their social networks at the campaign’s service. UOL Splash listed Brazilian pages for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Anitta and, in K-pop, BTS, Stray Kids, BLACKPINK and TWICE. The movement began on timelines and reached the streets without first going through PT campaign headquarters. Metrópoles published the call: March for Democracy, October 11, outside MASP, gathering at 11 a.m.

Original quotation in Portuguese

Fandoms do Brasil.

Veja, Lula no ato da Paulista

Agência Brasil described the event as independently organized by social movements and these fandoms, alongside Palmeiras and Corinthians supporters, São Paulo’s LGBT+ Pride Parade and student movements. From the sound truck, Lula thanked ‘Brazil’s fandoms’, as reported by Veja and UOL. The campaign estimated more than 1 million people along the route. The Military Police released no estimate, and USP’s Political Debate Monitor did not count the crowd. The number remains the organizers’ estimate. The campaign embraced an event it had not commissioned.

André Janones (Rede-MG) organized what the streets were doing spontaneously. The ‘Exército do Lula’ WhatsApp channel became the tool, with a method built around timed missions: everyone posts together so the algorithm distributes more. O Globo described growth from 50,000 people to 4 million in a few days and 8.3 million on Thursday, October 22. On Friday, Folha reported 10 million participants.

Original quotation in Portuguese

O verde e amarelo é nosso.

Estado de Minas, 17 out 2026

On October 17, the mission was the national team shirt and an L made with the hand, at 9 a.m. Estado de Minas, Brasil de Fato and Poder360 covered the flood of posts. The slogan was ‘the green and yellow belong to us’. Lula joined in and posted Ricardo Stuckert’s photo at Granja do Torto, with the sticker ‘Brazil belongs to Brazilians’. Janones said the streets and social media had already been reclaimed, and now it was the symbols’ turn.

During the same fortnight, Folha published internal Meta messages in which employees acknowledged restrictions that harmed Lula’s Instagram accounts and an algorithmic recommendation of Flávio’s profile, a practice prohibited by the TSE. The campaign estimated that around 1.3 million people had not seen advertisements in the October 9 episode. The company treated the cases as technical failures. CTRL+Z, also cited by Folha, said problems with stories, comments and search remained unresolved in the final stretch, only on Lula’s account. These are internal documents and the platform’s explanation, rather than a court ruling. The contest also involved who controls distribution.

Part of the public conversation ran through a new series and two newsrooms that treated Banco Master as a thread running through the campaign. Revelando, a weekly YouTube series created by Calma Urgente and directed by Alessandra Orofino, in partnership with ICL, Mídia Ninja and 342 Artes, premiered in September and ended its first season on October 24. Folha listed presenters including Fábio Porchat, Juliette, Luana Piovani, Camila Pitanga and Samara Felippo. The episodes examined Master’s ties to Igreja da Lagoinha and political figures including Flávio. TVT News described ‘República dos Laranjas’, with Porchat, about Vorcaro, INSS fraud and the mention of Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, and ‘Flavinho de Papai’, with MC Cabelinho.

Original quotation in Portuguese

O Master e a República.

piauí, 3 set 2026

At UOL, Daniela Lima’s column dissected the Dark Horse case, Jair Bolsonaro’s biopic, explaining the proceedings as they unfolded. On September 13, she reported that Justice Flávio Dino had lifted secrecy over about 5,000 pages from the São Paulo Civil Police investigation into the film’s producer. In June, on UOL News, she detailed the PT’s complaint to the Federal Police and Supreme Federal Court concerning Banco Master money and parliamentary budget amendments.

On September 3, piauí published ‘Master and the Republic’. The article brought together what the Federal Police were investigating: deputies, senators, former governors and Supreme Court justices around Daniel Vorcaro, some suspected of helping the fraud, others of receiving favors. The same edition revisited The Intercept’s reporting on the request for US$24 million for the film and Flávio’s contradictions, and announced ‘Em cartaz, a caixa-preta’, with a Coaf report and messages from the banker’s phone. These were reporting scoops while the investigation was still underway. The museum cites them as journalism, rather than a court ruling.

Four reported episodes in the final stretch shook the senator’s campaign. The first was Nikolas Ferreira’s video ‘O Nordeste que foi esquecido’, published on October 20 and filmed in the Rio das Ondas settlement in Luís Eduardo Magalhães, Bahia. Metrópoles and Bahia Notícias showed what happened behind the scenes: a teleprompter, cinematic lighting, a crew comment about a resident’s ‘pitiful face’ and instructions to keep a satellite dish out of the shot. UOL spoke to residents who said the situation shown did not reflect the place. The material was part of an effort to close the gap in the Northeast.

Original quotation in Portuguese

Cortar na carne.

Estadão, Daniella Marques

The second was the runoff’s first head-to-head debate, on Band on October 18, with Gazeta, TV Cultura, Jovem Pan News and Estadão. The BBC described a chaotic format, with more accusations than proposals. CBN recorded the audience disturbance and Lula’s challenge to open bank and telephone records. Flávio walked behind the president, gesturing disapproval. Folha reported that campaign strategist Duda Lima had directed him to remain in the frame.

At the same debate, Pablo Marçal and Nikolas Ferreira passed messages to Flávio during breaks, whispering to Daniella Marques so the PT team would not hear. This was reported by Mônica Bergamo’s column. Marçal was acting as a coach for confrontation on camera.

Daniella Marques was the campaign’s economic spokesperson. On October 6, Folha described her as being considered for an expanded social ministry, also encompassing the women’s portfolio, and out of contention for Finance. In Estadão, she said there was no moral authority to discuss social programs, the minimum wage or pensions while privileges remained unaddressed, and that it was necessary to ‘make painful cuts’. On October 19, on CBN Salvador, she spoke of a two-year transition rule for Bolsa Família. O Globo showed how the remark was read on social media as a limit on the benefit, and how she recorded a video saying the idea was to extend eligibility for those who found work. Flávio denied plans to cut the program. The remark had already left the studio.

The night settled the count. The Superior Electoral Court proclaimed the result, and the first-round order was reversed. Lula’s victory is a defense of Brazilian democracy, and this room celebrates it with the number at which the count ended.

Original quotation in Portuguese

A ordem do primeiro turno se inverteu.

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, código 6258

Two days after the electoral court proclaimed Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro left Brazil. Alexandre de Moraes had ordered his passports seized and barred him from leaving, in the inquiry into alleged money laundering with lawyer Willer Tomaz. On Monday, Flávio recorded a video: “I never thought of leaving the country”. On Tuesday, he did not hand over the documents. G1 described the departure as a flight, in defiance of the order.

Original quotation in Portuguese

Bem, eu aprovaria. Acho que eles são boas pessoas. A eleição foi muito estranha, e achei que foi terrível.

Donald Trump, ao G1, 28 out 2026

The route ran through Javier Milei’s Argentina. All day Tuesday, Milei’s government told Brazilian authorities he had not entered. At dawn on Wednesday, the National Migration Directorate confirmed the opposite: at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday, Flávio, his wife and their two daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves Bridge at Foz do Iguaçu, and at 11:30 p.m. boarded a private Baires Fly flight, tail number LV-JQW, to Guayaquil. The same government said there was no legal bar at the border.

The jet left Puerto Iguazú, stopped in Guayaquil and continued to Miami. G1, citing FlightAware, reported that the flight did not cross Brazilian airspace: it flew over Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru. The plane was already in United States airspace, with landing expected around 10:40 a.m. Brasília time at Opa-locka airport. The State Department said it would issue visas for Flávio and his family. Trump said he would approve their entry. The victory had been proclaimed. The defeated candidate’s exit ran through the government that denied the crossing and, hours later, confirmed it, and through the government that offered the visa.

What followed lives in the pages, maps and public posts preserved here. The celebration is the collection: the count that cannot be denied, and an invitation to anyone who kept an image of that night.

Original quotation in Portuguese

A festa é o acervo.

Museu da Virada