BSBios controller donates R$ 1 million to Lula and Bolsonaro campaigns

Erasmo Carlos Battistella, the controller of BSBios—Latin America’s largest biodiesel producer and a former Petrobras partner—has donated R$ 500,000 each to the presidential campaigns of Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro.

In terms of total individual donations, Flávio Bolsonaro has raised R$ 1.46 million, while Lula da Silva has collected R$ 660,000. Notable contributors include professor Mayra Cristina da Luz Pádua Guimarães, who donated R$ 40,000 to Lula, and Alexandre Chequer, global head of Mayer Brown Energy, who contributed R$ 120,000 to Bolsonaro.

Additionally, qualitative party research suggests that President Lula’s recent national broadcast defending the Supreme Federal Court (STF) may lead to a loss of votes. The speech was interpreted by some as a defense of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, a move that Lula’s staff is currently analyzing to determine if the government has inadvertently adopted an institutional issue belonging to the Court.