Lisbon, Sept. 7, 2026 (Lusa) - Brazil is celebrating Independence Day on Monday in the midst of an election campaign with less than a month before the elections, at a time of institutional turmoil caused by a corruption scandal affecting the Brazilian political and judicial systems.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who is seeking re-election on 4 October, took part this morning in the traditional civic-military parade in Brasília to mark the 204th anniversary of the official proclamation of Brazil's separation from Portugal.
Under the slogan ‘Sovereignty, the force that unites Brazil', this year's parade focused on three priorities of the Brazilian Government: national sovereignty, the fight against violence against women, and the Women's World Cup, which Brazil will host next year.
Lula da Silva was accompanied by the vice-president and his running mate in the October elections, Geraldo Alckmin, the First Lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, and the heads of the legislative and judicial branches, amongst other officials.
Meanwhile, the runner-up in the polls for the presidential elections, Flávio Bolsonaro – a Brazilian senator and the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro – has scheduled a rally for this afternoon in São Paulo under the slogan «Out with Lula and out with [Alexandre de] Moraes», the prominent judge of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
The campaign has been dominated in recent days by the scandal centred on Banco Master, a private bank liquidated by order of the Central Bank last year after causing losses of over €10 billion to public pension funds.
The scandal, investigations into which are still ongoing and are, for the most part, subject to judicial secrecy, has implicated several politicians, officials and STF judges.
The political crisis worsened this week with the disclosure of compromising messages from the banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, sent to Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who was the judge presiding over the case that led to Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for attempting a coup d'état.
The police identified messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Alexandre de Moraes, to whom the banker sought protection from the investigations and even asked, days before his arrest, whether he should leave the country, according to court documents made public by the Supreme Court.
The case is now in the hands of André Mendonça, another of the Supreme Court's justices.
However, Alexandre de Moraes, unhappy with the investigations against him, has fought back and requested that Mendonça be investigated for abuses and irregularities in the conduct of the proceedings.
The President of the Supreme Court, Luiz Edson Fachin, who today stood just a few metres away from Lula at the parade in Brasília, has taken the reins of the crisis and promised, last week, to see the investigation through to the end.
Both sides of the political spectrum have sought to exploit the corruption case politically, attempting to link it to their political opponent.
Flávio Bolsonaro claimed that there is «a conspiracy» between Lula da Silva and «those people who tried to destroy democracy».
Meanwhile, the left is attempting to capitalise on the fact that Flávio Bolsonaro himself admitted to having received at least $12 million from Vorcaro to sponsor a film chronicling his father's political rise.
Lula da Silva has already called for rigour in the investigations into the Master case, but at the same time criticised the fact that the leaks have been «selective».
Without naming anyone, the head of state stated that «some people» are trying to «weaken» democratic institutions through these leaks.
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