BRASILIA - Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro returned from the United States on Thursday, welcomed back after three months by hundreds of chanting supporters at the capital Brasilia’s airport.

Mr Bolsonaro, who never conceded defeat in the 2022 election, is expected to lead the opposition to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said officials in his PL party.

Supporters with Brazil flags draped around their shoulders sang the national anthem and chanted “legend” as they awaited Mr Bolsonaro to exit the arrivals area, where security was tight.

“We are here to receive our president. His job will be to sort out this mess. The Lula government is just doing everything wrong,” said 45-year-old small business owner Anderson Clayton, draped in a Brazil flag.

The 68-year-old former president will proceed from the airport to the headquarters of PL, which became the largest party in the House and the second largest in the Senate after the last election.

Before boarding a plane in Orlando, Mr Bolsonaro downplayed his leadership role and said he would use his experience to help his party campaign in the 2024 municipal elections, adding that the vote he lost last October is a closed chapter.

“We have turned a page, and now we will prepare for next year’s elections,” he told CNN Brasil shortly before boarding.

Mr Bolsonaro left for the US two days before he was due to hand over the presidential sash to Mr Lula on Jan 1. He said he needed rest, but critics say he was avoiding the risk of over a dozen legal investigations he may face in Brazil.

Legal probes have focused on his attacks against Brazil’s voting system and alleged role in encouraging supporters to storm government buildings in Jan 8 riots that recalled the 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Mr Bolsonaro, who holds former US President Donald Trump as his political idol, attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in March in Washington where he questioned the result of the October election narrowly won by Mr Lula, and said his mission in Brazil was “still not over”. REUTERS