Flávio Bolsonaro challenges poll showing support decline

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro filed a legal challenge Tuesday with electoral authorities to contest a poll released the same day that showed his support declining in the 2026 presidential race.

Bolsonaro, the leading opposition candidate against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, argued that the AtlasIntel survey contained questions designed "to induce a serious negative perception" of his candidacy. The poll, conducted the previous week, showed Lula leading 48.9 percent to Bolsonaro's 41.8 percent in a runoff scenario between the two candidates.

The survey represented a six-point drop in Bolsonaro's support compared to an AtlasIntel poll conducted April 22, when he registered 47.8 percent. Until two weeks before the latest poll, the two candidates had appeared technically tied in voting intention.

On the same day, Bolsonaro attended a meeting with deputies and parliamentarians from his Liberal Party at the party's headquarters in Brasília. During the gathering, he defended a change to labor law that would establish hourly wage compensation as an alternative to the current 6x1 work schedule, where employees work six days and rest one.

"This suggestion, this alternative, was passed to our caucus—work remunerated by hours of work, with the guarantee of all labor rights, thirteenth salary, severance fund, vacation and all labor rights guaranteed, obviously proportional to hours of work," Bolsonaro stated at the meeting.

He characterized the proposal as an alternative to ending the 6x1 schedule, a position championed primarily by left-wing parties and the Lula government. The administration submitted a bill proposing a reduction in the workweek from 44 to 40 hours. A constitutional amendment proposal on the subject is also pending in the Chamber of Deputies.

Earlier Tuesday, former Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema, a pre-candidate for the presidency from the Novo party, made comments regarding recent reports of a meeting between Bolsonaro and Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master and under investigation for tax fraud. Zema stated he had never met with Vorcaro and used a colloquial expression, saying "a ghost knows who it appears to," in reference to the controversy surrounding Bolsonaro's encounter with the banker.

Zema made the remarks during a breakfast meeting with business executives in Itapema, Santa Catarina. He emphasized that despite living in the same city as Vorcaro, he had never met with the banker, attended meetings with him, made phone calls to him, or had any contact with him.

Reports indicated that Bolsonaro had met with Vorcaro the previous year after the banker's arrest.