Foreign newspapers highlight Bolsonaro’s conviction

Brazil is cited as an example of defense of democracy by the international press. Newspapers also remember that pockets will not end the former president’s arrest.

TAGESSCHAU (Germany): Former President Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of attempted coup. Four of the five Federal Supreme Court (STF) ministers voted for the conviction. […]

Bolsonaro is accused of planning an attempt to blow against the government of his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after his electoral defeat, along with military and allies. The accusation is convinced that he planned to decree a state of siege and call new elections, but failed to obtain the support of the military summit. […]

This is the first time in Brazil, whose history is marked by blows and dictatorships, which a former chief of state is convicted of a coup attempt. This is also the first time that members of the Armed Forces have to respond to a civil court, but the process is considered historical not only for it. According to STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the trial also represents a milestone in times when democracy is increasingly under attack in various parts of the world. […]

Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany): 27 years in prison: An conviction against all resistance […]

But the court did not retreat, and so Brazil now presents itself internationally as the country that managed to deal with an attempt to coup within the rule of law – despite the justified criticism of the composition of the first class of the Supreme Court. On the one hand, this is surprising because other dark chapters in the country’s history, such as the period of military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, are often ignored. The generals and their accomplices, who at that time tortured and made people disappear, were never punished.

On the other hand, Brazil, with the lawsuit against Bolsonaro and its allies, represents a counterpoint to the United States. Donald Trump, who at the time incited the crowd in Washington, has so far not been responsible for the attack on the Capitol. […]

Even though Bolsonaro is eventually arrested, pockets are far from dead. A survey conducted in August revealed that 37% of Brazilians support their political ideas, while 39% prefer Lula’s workers party. And Bolsonaro’s dispute for the right leader is already in full swing.

DIE WELT (Germany): Verdit that consolidates Lula’s power […]

This verdict has a dimension of internal and external policy. According to investigators, Bolsonaro, a former military man, planned as leader of a criminal organization, along with allies, a blow to stay in power after his electoral defeat to Lula. […]

Critics of the verdict complain that Lula’s leftist party, the PT, has placed its allies in the Federal Supreme Court and at the top of the investigative authorities in recent years. This created the impression of a politically instrumentalized judiciary.

Cristiano Zanin, one of the five ministers who voted for Bolsonaro’s conviction, was Lula’s personal lawyer until August 2023. Minister Flávio Dino was Minister of Justice of Lula da Silva just two years ago. […]

The verdict also dealt with the position of the largest country in Latin America in the geopolitical game of interests, as Washington had been aligned with Bolsonaro. […]

The government of the most powerful country in Latin America is now positioned against the United States, against Israel, and aligns with dictatorial regimes around the world, including Washington’s ideological enemies such as Cuba and Venezuela. Although Bolsonaro’s government also had democratic deficits, it represented the opposite position. […]

Recently, Tarcisio de Freitas even suggested the possibility of granting forgiveness to Bolsonaro if he wins the elections. Now he faces an apparatus of comprehensive power: at the top of the judiciary, the investigative authorities, and most media conglomerates that benefit from public funds are almost exclusively allies of Lula. In addition, Lula and the Supreme Court intend to advance with the regulation of social networks before the elections. Given this configuration of power, Brazil prepares for a heated election campaign.

Faz (Germany): 27 years in prison for Bolsonaro […]

The trial and the verdict are polarizing Brazil. This is due to Bolsonaro’s divisionist personality, especially to the shaken STF credibility, which has been the target of right -wing attacks for some time. Seven of the eleven ministers who make up the collegiate were appointed during the left governments of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Judge Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case, is not among them. In recent years, Moraes has waged a fierce battle against social networking, directed almost exclusively against Bolsonaro’s political circle figures, making him the pocket’s arch-enemy. […]

“Do” recalled that Alexandre de Moraes is not one of the judges appointed by the left governments to the STF | Evaristo Sa/AFP

In recent months, due to trial, Moraes and other ministers have been criticized by US President Donald Trump, who maintains a friendly relationship with Bolsonaro and his children. […]

But the ministers are not intimidated. With the verdict, Trump’s retaliation can be even harder. […]

The verdict also plays a great shadow on next year’s presidential elections. Prior to the decision, Bolsonaro was already ineligible until 2030 by decision of the Superior Electoral Court. The condemnation and the long penalty make your situation even harder. However, he remains the most important leader on the Brazilian right and, as he says, wants to “continue in the game.” Those who receive Bolsonaro’s blessing will be guaranteed many votes. And this blessing is now probably associated with an amnesty promise, which also brings political risks in the form of strong rejection by more moderate voters.

El País (Spain): Former President Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted coup against Lula

Brazil takes an important step against impunity. For the first time in history, a court sentenced a former president and high-ranking military. Right -wing extremist Jair Messias Bolsonaro, a 70 -year -old retired army captain, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a coup plan to prevent the transfer of power to his rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after losing the 2022 elections. […]

His conviction will have huge effects on the 2026 presidential race. It is very likely that he decides the right -wing candidate who will run against President Lula, who seeks a fourth term. […]

In these difficult times for global democracy, Brazil sends a powerful message to the rest of the world with its verdict: justice can punish those who undermine the constitutional order and institutions. However, it may be a temporary victory.

Bolsonaro and his supporters stepped on the accelerator so that Congress takes advantage of an amnesty that would benefit the former president and others convicted of coup and so-called allegedly democratic acts of criminal punishments. Several of the candidates who expect to succeed him as the right leader and presidential candidate promised him a pardon.

The Guardian (United Kingdom): Bolsonaro’s prison does not mean the end of his political movement

Four years have passed since Jair Bolsonaro had three possible outcomes for his extraordinary political career, during which the frequently ridiculed poorly prominent politician has risen and became one of the leading figures on the global populist right, alongside Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.

“Being in prison, being killed or victory,” predicted the then president of Brazil while fighting a flood of political crises in August 2021. […]

Guardian recalled that Bolsonaro predicted three possible outcomes for his career: “jail, death or victory” | Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

The historic verdict-the first time a former Brazilian president was considered guilty of trying to overthrow the country’s democracy-seems to have extinguished Bolsonaro’s hopes of one day to resume the presidency of the largest democracy in South America.

But experts and politicians throughout the spectrum agree that the former paraquedist’s political movement, pockets, will continue to prosper despite the arrest of its creator. Bolsonaro received more than 58 million votes in the 2022 elections and, despite his conviction, remains extremely popular among certain sectors of society, including the growing evangelical community, in Brazil’s rural regions and between members of high -level security and high -level middle -class conservatives that hate the left. Protests Pro-Bolsonaro still attract tens of thousands of citizens to the streets. ”

The New York Times: A country that knew what to do when its president tries to steal the elections

On Thursday, the Brazilian Supreme Court did what the Senate and the US Federal Courts tragically failed to do: to bring to court a former president who assaulted democracy. […]

These events contrast strongly with the United States, where President Trump, who also tried to annul an election, was not sent to prison but back to the White House. Trump, perhaps recognizing the strength of this contrast, called the accusation against Bolsonaro “witch hunt” and described his conviction as “a terrible, very terrible thing.” But Trump was not limited to criticizing Brazil’s effort to defend his democracy: he also punished him. […]

The Trump government sought to use rates and sanctions to intimidate Brazilians to subvert their legal system – and, consequently, their democracy. In practice, the US government is punishing Brazilians for doing something that Americans should have done, but failed to: hold a former president responsible for trying to nullify an election. […]

“New York Times” highlighted similarities in attacks on Bolsonaro’s democracy in Brazil and Trump in the US | JIM LOSCALZO/CAPTITAL PICTURES/PICTURE ALLIANCE

In both the United States and Brazil, therefore, elected presidents attacked democratic institutions, seeking to stay in power after losing reelection. Both power attempts failed – initially. But that’s where the two stories differ. Americans did very little to protect their democracy from the leader who attacked her. […]

These institutional failures cost expensive. The second Trump government has been openly authoritarian, instrumentalizing government agencies and employing them to punish critics, threaten rivals and intimidate the private sector, media, law firms, universities and civil society groups. He has routinely buried the law and sometimes challenged the constitution.

Less than nine months after Trump’s second term, the United States has probably crossed the line of competitive authoritarianism. […]

Unlike the United States, Brazilian institutions have acted vigorously and, so far, effectively, to hold a former president responsible for trying to nullify an election. […]

With all its flaws, Brazilian democracy is today healthier than the American. Aware of the authoritarian past of his country, Brazilian judicial and political authorities did not give democracy for guaranteed. His American colleagues, on the other hand, failed this task. Instead of undermining Brazil’s efforts to defend their democracy, Americans should learn from them.

The Washington Post (USA): Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for scam attempt in Brazil […]

Bolsonaro and seven defendants were convicted of a coup attempted and four other related accusations.

Bolsonaro, 70, denied the accusations. The right -wing populist did not attend the trial, which began last week in a building that had been looted by his supporters after his defeat. In court, his lawyer stated that there was no concrete evidence to call him conspiracy to reverse the tighter presidential defeat in four decades of democracy in Brazil. He must appeal the sentence. […]

During his four-year government from 2019 to 2022, Bolsonaro dismantled environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest, minimized the covid-19 pandemic and incited his supporters to request a military intervention to prevent Lula’s return to power. He went into shock frequently with the Federal Supreme Court.

Originally published by DW on 12/09/2025