BRASÍLIA, Sept. 9 — Brazil marked 204 years of independence from Portugal on Monday with two competing political spectacles: an institutional parade here led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and a rival gathering on São Paulo’s Avenida Paulista organized by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The split-screen moment lands with the October 4 election just 27 days away, and the broader stakes extend well beyond the campaign trail. In Brasília, Lula wore his presidential sash beside his wife, Rosângela Lula da Silva, and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.
Congressional and judicial leaders joined them, including Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin. The parade emphasized national sovereignty, opposition to violence against women, and the Women’s World Cup Brazil will host in 2027.
In his televised address the previous evening, Lula said, according to EFE, “Our decisions belong to us and nobody else,” rejecting foreign interference amid tensions with the Trump administration and Argentina’s Javier Milei. EFE reports U.S. tariffs reaching 37.5 percent on selected Brazilian products — a maximum rate, not an average. On Paulista, where the temperature barely cleared 50 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands carried Brazilian, American and Israeli flags.
EFE reporters spotted an inflatable Donald Trump holding a Lula figure dressed as a prisoner. The national anthem and a prayer opened the gathering, followed by demands for Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave office.
Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party candidate and Jair’s son, told the crowd, according to EFE, “Whoever votes for Lula is voting for Alexandre de Moraes.” He promised to pursue Moraes’s removal through Congress if elected. Running mate Alfredo Gaspar called Lula and Moraes “the two enemies of Brazil,” while evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia — whom Moraes has prohibited from leaving Brazil during an ongoing investigation — called on Fachin to sideline Moraes.
Sovereignty Inside the Court
Inside the Supreme Court, the sovereignty question concerned institutional independence from private influence. Daniel Vorcaro, the jailed former owner of Banco Master, stands at the center of an investigation amid allegations of multimillion-dollar fraud. Police findings reported by EFE say he exchanged messages with Justice Moraes seeking protection from investigators and asking, shortly before his arrest, whether he should leave Brazil.
Police also say Moraes edited a lucrative services contract between Banco Master and his wife’s law firm, Viviane Barci de Moraes. These are investigative findings and allegations, not a judicial determination of corruption.
The investigation runs through Moraes’s own court; Justice André Mendonça oversees the case, and Moraes has requested an investigation into Mendonça for alleged abuses and irregularities. Jair Bolsonaro nominated Mendonça. Chief Justice Fachin has promised a thorough inquiry.
EFE also reports that Flávio’s own proximity to Vorcaro has drawn scrutiny. Lula separately said public office must not serve personal enrichment under democracy’s name, EFE reported.
Strategically, the calculus for both camps now runs through the judiciary as much as the ballot box. Moraes led proceedings that resulted in Jair Bolsonaro’s imprisonment over a coup plot, making him a central target of the opposition’s political energy. EFE’s initial polling dispatches described a narrow Lula advantage and some hypothetical runoff surveys showing a statistical tie.
What this signals: the independence day events were less a celebration than a preview of the election’s central confrontation — and of the institutional battle that could follow it, whichever way the vote breaks.
