Bolsonaro plans to return to Brazil in March, says his movement ‘will live on’

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he will return to Brazil in March to lead the right-wing movement after spending more than a month in the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The right-wing movement is not dead and will live on,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro also said he would return to Brazil next month to defend himself against allegations that he incited riots earlier this year in the capital city of Brasília while he was staying in Florida. He said in the interview that “they want to pin it on” him, when he was not even in the country.

Bolsonaro had told a group of supporters in Florida on Saturday that he was planning to return to his country “in the following weeks,” according to the Associated Press.

He will also face civil lawsuits about his administration’s handing of the coronavirus pandemic when he returns to Brazil.

Thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed government buildings in the capital city one week after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed office last month. The riots came after months of protests led by Bolsonaro’s supporters who contested the results of the presidential election, where Bolsonaro narrowly lost the election and refused to fully concede to da Silva.

“Losing is part of the electoral process,” he said.  “I’m not saying there was fraud, but the process was biased.”

The newest announcement comes just days after President Biden met with da Silva at the White House last week to discuss inclusion and democracy values, and before the Summit for Democracy, which the U.S. will hold in March with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea the Republic of Zambia.