by Jamil Chade
Descendants of Italians in Brazil typically wait years for Italian citizenship. But on November 6, during a session of the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, the Italian government admitted that it granted citizenship to Eduardo, Carlos and Flávio Bolsonaro in 58 days.
Flávio Bolsonaro hugs Italy’s right wing extremist Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini (photo: social media)
Green party Parliamentarian Angelo Bonelli announced that he is requesting a criminal inquiry into how the citizenship was granted. He warned of an escape plan in which the Italian passport would serve as a shield against Brazilian prosecution.
“Unfortunately, it is confirmed that Flávio, Eduardo and Carlos received priority treatment from the embassy,” Bonelli said. He noted that other descendants of Italians can wait up to 10 years. For the three brothers, he said, it took only 58 days from the date they were called in to have their application reviewed. “It is absolutely unacceptable. These are people who use the Italian passport to flee from justice.”
Bonelli also said the faster processing of the three passports coincided with the 2022 election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Italian government’s position
Matilde Siracusano, an undersecretary who represents Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to lawmakers, said the government followed the law. “As the government has already said in response to parliamentary questions, Italy recognized the citizenship of Eduardo, Flávio and Carlos Bolsonaro in accordance with the rules in force at the time and with the procedures set by law,” she said.
Siracusano said Eduardo Bolsonaro asked to join the waiting list at the Consular Office of the Italian Embassy in Brasília on Dec. 22, 2020. Carlos and Flávio Bolsonaro asked on Oct. 26, 2021. She said all three lived in Brasília when they applied and submitted the required documents.
On Oct. 20, 2021, about a year after joining the waiting list, Eduardo Bolsonaro contacted the Consular Office to ask about his case, Siracusano said. On Nov. 18, 2022, a year later, the brothers were able to file formal applications for recognition of citizenship iure sanguinis (by right of blood).
Siracusano said Carlos and Flávio Bolsonaro were called in at the same time as Eduardo, who had joined the list earlier. She called this an established practice: applications from descendants of the same Italian ancestor are processed together.
Citizenship was granted to the three brothers on Jan. 5, 2023, Siracusano said. She said their documents were complete and met the rules at the time. Following standard procedure, the embassy also requested their registration in the AIRE (Registry of Italians Residing Abroad) on the same occasion.
The passports were issued months later. Flávio Bolsonaro received his on Nov. 8, 2023. Eduardo Bolsonaro received his on April 3, 2024, and Carlos Bolsonaro on June 14, 2024.
Siracusano said the Italian Embassy in Brasília had no record of pending court cases against the brothers when it issued the passports. She added that recognition of citizenship by blood involves no discretion by the administration. The official in charge only checks whether the applicant meets the criteria set by law.
Under the legal framework in force when the applications were filed, she said, citizenship could be recognized for anyone with an unbroken line of descent from an Italian ancestor, with no generational limit.
Jair Bolsonaro will not get a passport
Siracusano said the rule changed later. A reform pushed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, enacted in Decree Law 36 of March 28, 2025, introduced stricter criteria. Recognition of citizenship now requires a more direct and substantial link to Italy.
In practice, the new law will keep cases like that of former President Jair Bolsonaro from getting a passport as easily as his sons did.
Escape plan
Bonelli reacted to the government’s answer with indignation. Holding an Italian passport in his hand, he asked the rest of the chamber how it could accept the Bolsonaro family using the document as a weapon against the courts.
Bonelli recalled that Eduardo Bolsonaro recorded a video in which he challenged Justice Alexandre de Moraes. To show he would not be caught, Eduardo displayed an Italian passport. “He used the Italian passport to insult a judge,” Bonelli said.
Bonelli repeated Eduardo Bolsonaro’s words in Portuguese, including the profanity.
Background
The hearing took place after Bonelli submitted a written question asking the government to explain Flávio Bolsonaro’s case. He wanted to know whether the government is aware of the investigations in Brazil involving Flávio Bolsonaro. He also asked what steps it plans to take “to avoid the risk that Italian citizenship becomes, in practice, an instrument to escape justice at the international level.” Bonelli also asked whether the government will assess if there are grounds to revoke the passports held by Jair Bolsonaro’s sons.
Meloni acknowledged Lula’s victory in the October elections. But the governing coalition in Italy has included Matteo Salvini in recent years. Salvini is deputy prime minister and the leader of the country’s far right. He is an ally of Jair Bolsonaro. After the first round of the Brazilian elections, Salvini posted a photo of himself hugging Flávio Bolsonaro and congratulating him on his victory. Salvini called Flávio Bolsonaro “my friend” and described the result as “extraordinary.”
In his question to Meloni’s government, Bonelli noted that Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro, sons of then President Jair Bolsonaro, asked in 2020 to join the waiting list at the Consular Office of the Italian Embassy in Brasília. They sought recognition of citizenship iure sanguinis and presented proof of residence in Brasília.
On Nov. 8, 2022, nine days after their father’s electoral defeat, Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro went to the embassy to check on their applications.
On June 13, 2025, in response to parliamentary question No. 2-00631, the government confirmed that Flávio, Eduardo and Carlos Bolsonaro had completed the process and obtained Italian citizenship. Flávio and Eduardo got it in 2023, and Carlos in 2024.
Bonelli noted that the embassy in Brasília suspended the scheduling of citizenship appointments in August 2018 and kept only a waiting list of interested applicants. In November 2022, the appointments being processed were for requests made in 2018. “It is necessary to verify whether the Bolsonaros were called in the chronological order of the waiting list or received preferential treatment over other applicants,” Bonelli wrote.
Bonelli also wrote that Decree Law 36 of 2025 significantly restricted recognition of citizenship iure sanguinis. “As a result, many descendants of Italians will no longer be able to obtain it, while the sons of Bolsonaro, who was convicted in Brazil of attempting a coup, obtained it quite quickly,” he wrote.
The investigations
In the request to the government, Bonelli described Flávio Bolsonaro’s record. Flávio Bolsonaro was defeated in the Oct. 25, 2026, presidential election. Bonelli wrote that he is the target of two Federal Police investigations supervised by the Supreme Federal Court.
Moraes oversees the first investigation, which involves money laundering allegations tied to betting companies and payment platforms linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz. It includes possible access to accounts held by an offshore entity.
Justice André Mendonça oversees the second, which concerns the financing of the film “Dark Horse” by Daniel Vorcaro, former controlling shareholder of Banco Master. Vorcaro in currently in jail awaiting trial for currency evasion, criminal association, money laundering and corruption.
Bonelli also noted that Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors charged Flávio Bolsonaro with embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering. The case was halted after the Supreme Court annulled the evidence gathered, without ruling on the merits.
Bonelli also said that on June 16, 2026, the court’s First Panel unanimously convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro and sentenced him to four years and two months in prison. The charge was coercion in the course of a judicial proceeding, specifically for trying to interfere in the trial over the coup attempt. The conviction became final on Oct. 31, 2026. On Oct. 7, 2026, Moraes ordered Eduardo Bolsonaro’s arrest and the cancellation of all his Brazilian passports.
More broadly, Bonelli warned about the use of the Italian passport as a shield against justice. In the request, he cited former Rep. Carla Zambelli. After her conviction in Brazil, Zambelli said she felt “untouchable” because of her Italian passport. Bonelli said this illustrates the risk that Italian citizenship could be used to escape justice in one’s own country.
What Bonelli wants to know
Bonelli now wants all the information needed to establish when the three brothers asked to join the waiting list at the embassy in Brasília. He also wants the dates they were called in, the dates they submitted the required documents and the dates they obtained citizenship.
He also asks when the embassy resumed scheduling appointments after the August 2018 suspension. He wants to know how many applicants who joined the list earlier were still waiting for an appointment at that time. He asks whether the three brothers received priority service, or service outside the chronological order.
If they received preferential treatment, Bonelli wants to know the criteria and who at the embassy authorized it.
Bonelli also asks whether the government plans formal inspections of how the procedures were handled in the case of Bolsonaro’s sons, to guarantee equal treatment for all applicants. He wants the government to give Parliament the results of any such inspections.
This article first appeared in ICL Notícias, was translated with express authorization from the editor by Panamerican Dispatch, and can be read in its original Portuguese here.