Was he planning to flee?

Bolsonaro holed up in Hungary’s embassy

Former President Jair Bolsonaro has several problems with the judiciary in Brazil.(Bild: AFP )

A few days after Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro's passport was confiscated by the federal police, he spent two nights in the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia in February. There are suspicions that he may have planned his escape, as he is being investigated on suspicion of a coup d'état.

The "New York Times" initially reported on this. It relied on footage from security cameras in the embassy. The matter raises questions about the plans of the right-wing ex-president, who is facing several criminal investigations in Brazil, with several members of his inner circle already in prison. Brazilian police would not be able to arrest a politician staying in a foreign embassy.

Bolsonaro only wanted to maintain contacts, according to his lawyer
Bolsonaro's lawyer explained on a social media platform that by staying in the Hungarian embassy, the ex-president wanted to maintain contact with officials in the friendly country and had informed himself about the political landscape of both countries. "All other interpretations beyond the information provided here are clearly fictitious, have nothing to do with the reality of the facts and are in practice just another piece of fake news," he wrote.

The Hungarian embassy in Brasilia(Bild: AFP)

On Monday evening, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian ambassador to clarify the reasons for Bolsonaro's stay at the embassy. The Hungarian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York Times reported Bolsonaro's lawyer declined to comment on the report, but an official at the Hungarian embassy, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the plan to receive the former president.

Bolsonaro called Hungarian prime minister "brother"
Bolsonaro has good relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Bolsonaro called Orban his "brother" during a visit to Hungary in 2022, and the two met this year in Buenos Aires on the occasion of the inauguration of the new right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei.

Ex-president allegedly planned coup
Police confiscated Bolsonaro's passport on February 8 and accused him of drafting a bill to reverse the 2022 election results, urging military chiefs to participate in a coup attempt and plotting the imprisonment of a Supreme Court judge.

Last year, a Brazilian court ruled that Bolsonaro was ineligible for political office for spreading disinformation during the 2022-2030 election. Two weeks ago, the former heads of the Brazilian army and air force confirmed that Bolsonaro had discussed drafting a decree to prevent the transfer of power after the election. On March 19, the federal police also accused him of entering false data into the South American country's vaccination database.