Brazil’s Bolsonaro to join centrist party, eyeing reelection

By DÉBORA ÁLVARES and DIANE JEANTET
Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has sealed an agreement with the centrist Liberal Party to back his 2022 reelection bid, according to a statement the party published Wednesday. The statement said the decision followed a meeting between Bolsonaro and party leader Valdemar Costa Neto in capital Brasilia. Bolsonaro intends for the alliance to aid him in battling his nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Joining one of the parties that forms part of the so-called Centrao group also signals Bolsonaro shifting course from his 2018 election strategy, when he sharply criticized their old-school politics of horse trading and cast himself as an outsider