Rio Grande do Sul was once one of the main strongholds of the left in Brazil. The PT governed Porto Alegre for 16 years in a row and won the state government before Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became president.
It was also in the State that the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) organized its first major mobilization: the occupation of Fazenda Annoni, in 1985.
Decades later, the scenario changed. Jair Bolsonaro (PL) was the candidate with the most votes in the State in 2018 and 2022. In 2026, his son Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) also led the vote, winning in Ronda Alta and Pontão, municipalities linked to the origins of the MST where the PT had not lost in the first presidential round since 1989.
Journalists João Fellet and Felix Lima, from BBC News Brasil, visited the region to investigate this transformation. In an area marked by the struggle for agrarian reform, residents are increasingly identifying with agribusiness and the right.
"Is agriculture more Bolsonaro-friendly? Yes. Why? Simple. Bolsonaro's government supported agriculture", says Luis Fernando Costa Nunes, PL councilor in Pontão and son of small farmers.
Despite the conservative advance, cooperatives linked to the MST prosper in the region and are a reference for the movement. In them, many young people remain in the countryside thanks to the work opportunities and living conditions in the settlements.
Isaías Vedovatto, a pioneer of the MST in Pontão, sees the advance of Bolsonarism as a threat to the movement's achievements, but states that the group “has conditions to survive” and offers an alternative based on “collectivity, solidarity and quality of life”.
Check out the report in the video.
