Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts – The President
Jair Bolsonaro is the 45th President of Brazil. He is the leader of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). He was elected president in October 2018 with 52% of the vote.
Bolsonaro came to politics through the far-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in 2002, after studying law. In 2003 he was elected to the city council of Rio de Janeiro. In 2007, he was elected to the Brazilian Senate. In 2008, he was elected as mayor of Vitória da Conquista in the state of Espírito Santo. In 2014, he was elected to the Brazilian Congress, representing Espírito Santo, serving as the president of the lower chamber. In 2018, he was elected as president of Brazil.
Jair Bolsonaro, a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), won the presidential election on October 28, 2018, defeating incumbent Worker’s Party candidate, Fernando Haddad, by a surprisingly narrow margin of 53.7% of the vote to Haddad’s 46.3%.
This was Bolsonaro’s third presidential run, having previously run in 2012, when he finished third. In 2012, he won 46.7% of the vote to Haddad’s 48.4%.
Jair Bolsonaro grew up living in a small town, where he was involved in a variety of projects including a school and a community center. His political career started as a student of law, and his passion for law was further developed as he became involved in community development.
Upon graduating from Rio de Janeiro’s Law School, he took a position as a federal prosecutor in his hometown, in the state of Espírito Santo, before returning to the Rio area to pursue a career as a municipal judge.
In 2017, Bolsonaro took his seat in the Brazil’s Senate, where he worked for more than a year as part of a commission dealing with the issue of violence against indigenous groups. After having joined the Social Democracy Party (PSDB), he later decided to run for president in 2018.
Bolsonaro came to politics through the far-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in 2002, after studying law. In 2003, he was elected to the city council of Rio de Janeiro, in
