Bolsonaro Inelegível

Overview

Bolsonaro Inelegível is an expression and catchphrase in Portuguese translated to "Bolsonaro ineligible" in English, which refers to the June 2023 trial in the Brazilian Supreme Court that decided to block former President Jair Bolsonaro from seeking public office for the next eight years. The decision became a trending topic on social media, with Bolsonaro's opposition celebrating the news with memes, parodies, comedy skits and other meme formats using the phrase "Bolsonaro inelegível."

Background

On June 30th, 2023, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Superior Electoral Court ) concluded the trial^[1] that condemned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for abuse of political power and misuse of the media. The decision declared Bolsonaro ineligible for any political campaign for eight years, until 2030.

That same day, June 30th, the NY Times explained in an article^[2] that Bolsonaro violated Brazil’s election laws when he summoned diplomats to the presidential palace and made baseless claims that the nation’s voting systems were likely to be rigged less than three months before the 2022 Brazilian General Election.

Online Reaction

Online, people quickly reacted to the court's ruling with memes and humor as former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro became ineligible until 2030. For instance, on June 30th, 2023, Twitter^[3] user @irevaf posted a video of Bolsonaro's face while prison bars closed, referencing his ruling. The post (shown below) garnered over 73,000 views and 2,600 likes in four days.

carmen lucia got her masters in cuntology with a concentration in motherlogical studies from the university of servington pic.twitter.com/FtKBgX7Ylx

— sony faberison (@irevaf) June 30, 2023

Brazilian comedian and Twitter user @PaulinhoSerra posted a wordplay meme with a beer can spelling out the word "ineligible" in Portuguese. The tweet^[4] (shown below, left) garnered over 28,000 likes and 7,100 retweets since being uploaded on June 30th. On July 3rd, Twitter user^[5] @RomuloBDias posted a picture of Bolsoanro and the current President Lula da Silva (shown below, right), which received over 30 likes and 24 retweets in less than a day.

Search Interest

External References