Bolsonaro brand fuels Flavio's rise in poll survey

Even Flavio Bolsonaro didn't seem to take his presidential candidacy very seriously when his father, Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro, tapped him as a political heir from behind bars.

- Fran Blandy, Agence France-Presse

Flavio Bolsonaro

However the bespectacled 44-year-old senator, who is pitching himself as a more measured member of the far-right dynasty, has surprised many with a surge in opinion polls ahead of October elections.

Flavio's presidential bid received a cool reception from conservatives and the market.

He also sparked confusion saying he might abandon the ticket for a “price,” in what was seen as a bid to negotiate amnesty for his father. But conservatives knew Flavio was not going anywhere and his ticket grew “even more than Bolsonaro supporters themselves believed,” said political scientist Claudio Goncalves Couto of the Getulio Vargas Foundation.